(Business Lounge Journal – Event)
I was the one who’s scared of the stagnant situation, I was the one who have unanswered questions as I returned back to my home country, after three years of studying, surrounding myself in the art scene of Singapore, the developed neighboring country from our beloved Indonesia.
How the public is educated and learning on how to appreciate art, how the government supports the art scene by creating the National Art Council, thousands of accessible resources to gain more knowledge and familiarize with the growing spark of the arts. Three years of being exposed to the environment, and seeing how nurturing the country with their art scene.
Within those times, I wondered how Indonesia cope with the fact that this country has a rich culture and art scene. Indonesia possesses one of the biggest art market, collectors, and artists; actively involved in the international visual art scene and the market as well.
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I have seen changes and growing trend of art for Millenials in the past couple of years, carefully paid attention and asking my friends around, excitement and curiosity grows as soon as Art Stage is going to be held in Jakarta in summer 2016. As someone who has experienced Art Stage back in Singapore for the past three years, I’m quite excited to see how Indonesia will bring their own characteristic and identity in Art Stage Jakarta.
I still remember the first time I stepped into Art Stage Jakarta’s exhibition level, my excitement made me completely forgot about how cold the place is. Looking by the size of the place, it is quite small compared to the ones held in Singapore; my assumptions is because they separate each hall into different ballrooms and how short the ceiling is, which indeed made every exhibitor’s spaces even more compact. It did not stop me from letting myself lost and sink into my curiosity as I walk inside the halls, admiring into art pieces that softly lulled me in and had me spent minutes to hours around the area. I have seen some of the familiar artworks in some galleries, but this time, I have to say that now I’m exposed to Indonesia’s art scene even more because of local galleries and collectors are involved in Art Stage Jakarta. I have a little pride inside me cheering loudly as my eyes landed on amazing pieces from Indonesian artists, and galleries that stunned me with their collections.
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The Collector’s Show : Expose, curated by Enin Supriyanto with a purpose to show the spirit of art collecting tracing back time from President Soekarno, until the leading art collectors in Indonesia such as Alex Tedja, Deddy Kusuma, Dr. Melani Setiawan, Rudy Akili, Tom Tandio and Wiyu Wahono. The growth of visual art scene in Indonesia has to play along with how impactful Indonesian collectors as the time goes by and being active both locally and internationally. Representing at least two generations of art collectors in Indonesia, they gladly share their collections of paintings, sculptures, installations, photography, to pieces that combine contemporary art with the current state of digital technology and bio-electronics elements. Showcasing how versatile the artworks are, and how relatable the mediums for Millenials to be able to understand and develop their appreciation of contemporary visual arts.
A Special Exhibition curated by Lorenzo Rudolf, a tribute to Affandi, Indonesia’s humanist and expressionist painter. Called as the Maestro, Affandi showcased his vision of the world through his eyes and the rawness of the texture of the painting. Affandi uses his hands instead of paint brushes, applying paint directly to the canvas; expressing his truest feelings into his artworks with sincerity and human compassion. The power of creativity has its’ ability to evoke and provoke the audience’s soul, interpreting different kinds of meanings of the world through Affandi’s eyes, that’s why his passion for the arts identified as “a call of the soul.”
“How about the differences between Art Stage Singapore and Art Stage Jakarta?”, well, let’s just say, Art Stage Singapore and Art Stage Jakarta compliments each other. I still remember how big the scale of Singapore’s Art Stage 2016 was; 170 exhibitors consists of local galleries and international galleries from 33 countries worldwide, with the additional special exhibition of “Dada on Tour 2016” as well. Their vision to bridge the network between Asia (focusing on South East Asia) and Western visual art scene while encouraging Asia’s contemporary art scene specialists, enthusiasts under one roof. Art Stage Jakarta started off with small yet sure steps, housing 49 galleries; 16 local galleries and 33 international galleries. A progress made to expose Indonesia’s rich culture and visual arts scene, pushing and encouraging local artists, collectors, and galleries through this international scale art fair. Both Art Stage Singapore and Jakarta has the same vision to be a medium for local and international galleries, artists, collectors to connect with each other, sharing thoughts and ideas, to create a network in order to make a progression from bringing local visual art scene into international market as well as exposing the international art scene to the locals.
Talking about progress, Millenials are known to be very tech-savvy, that’s why social media has to play a huge role in this situation. The spread of visual art scene exposure and awareness are accessible and the trend of going to galleries, art spaces, or museums are spiking up. They took pictures with the artwork, as a background mostly, and share it through their social media, showing that they are on the trend, giving a smart impression to their inner circle.
“Have you ever wondered these days, the Millenials are exploring galleries to galleries, or art spaces but all you can hear is their sound of laughter, camera clicks, and the sight of them taking pictures in front of an art pieces as their background for so called ‘OOTD’s? Have you ever got the feeling of irritated at those distracting noises when you ‘re trying to enjoy your time in a gallery?“
These are the situations that most of us probably has encountered for a few times, and true, for me, it is quite irritating.
But, let’s see from a different view,
These Millenials spent their time and energy to visit an art space/gallery/museum even though their first initial purpose is to take “cool pictures”. They chose the art pieces that caught their attention the most, and this unconscious behavior of them are seen as their first step exploring and appreciating an art piece, they selectively choose it and know that “this is a good art, and I want to take a picture with it.” A glimpse of progress that made unconsciously, with a proper education in appreciation and curatorial will help them to approach another level of visual art scene growth in Indonesia. Yes, it is still irritating but who knows, they might be the next generation of art collectors or critics? We never know.
Progress, seems like a big word, when everything marches through together, it creates an impact, a powerful one. The recurring thought of mine, for the “art as a freedom of expression” has been such a huge question that remains unanswered. We couldn’t underestimate the power of creativity, with different opinions, understanding, there has to be supervision or regulations to be made. Yes, it is contradicting with the freedom of expression. Even though the basis of an artwork is the rawness of the artists’ feelings and emotions from how they see the world through their eyes, it doesn’t stop the political views or groups from interpreting those artworks as a sound of rebellious movement, another form to attack; but if we put ourselves in the artist’s view, he/she doesn’t have any bad intention on creating an artwork based on their true feelings, as their form of expression. There will be always opinions and thoughts and this situation rises as the country progresses into a developed ones, acknowledging how intelligent the nation are; but we still need a bridge between these two different things, Art, and Politics.
There are always Black and White in this world, but then, where is the Gray ground? Art Stage as the medium, the bridge, connects a different kind of people to share their thoughts and ideas. With talk sessions, discussions, they educate the public properly about how vibrant the visual art scene is in Indonesia and how we must nurture it in order to be heard in international level. We, the Gray ground, we have to be able to be neutral as possible, to be able to understand from the different point of views and able to connect between them. After visiting Art Stage Jakarta, I have this small hope of progression, a change into something better and bigger for Indonesia’s visual art scene because now I’m exposed with so many great galleries that are actually ready to be brought out globally, and finally we have found the place to start.
Josephine Liong/VMN/BL/Contributor
Image: Stefania Carlavita – Business Lounge Journal