not for publication – talk at Studio Bibliothèque, Singapore - Roy Voragen

8/2/2019 not for publication talk at Studio Bibliothque, Singapore - Roy Voragen

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[not for publication talk at Studio Bibliothque, Singapore, 13 March 2012]

A RIGHT TO ART

state of the arts in Indonesia: plea for an art museum

Roy Voragen

Yudi Yudoyoko

What I miss the most

digital print on cotton paper (56x43cm), 2011

The Netherlands, where I am from, and Amsterdam in particular have

an abundance of good art museums. In Amsterdam a city smaller than a

suburb of Jakarta one can see works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Vincent vanGogh and Piet Mondrian within less than a square kilometer. While I argue


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that Indonesia needs an art museum, I fully realize that the Dutch situation

cannot be used as a benchmark here. I mention this, though, to illustrate how

I learned to appreciate artworks: by frequently going to art museums and look

and look and look again. And I learned to appreciate certain artworks andnot others through comparison.

The arts in Indonesia are thriving, artistically as well as commercially.

And in recent years, artists from Indonesia have entered the limelight of the

global art arena and enjoy a regular billing at events in Singapore and Hong

Kong. They participate in international exhibitions and biennales, and their

works have been collected by museums (for example the Singapore Art

Museum and Mori Art Museum in Tokyo). However, these vibrant

developments are not supported by a solid infrastructure for the arts in

Indonesia.

The arts in Indonesia are not strongly institutionalized due to, among

other reasons, a state with minimal interest in the arts and a fragmented arts

community. As a consequence, art journals and magazines, libraries and

archives are struggling; there are no art research grants; collection and

conservation of art are privatized; etc. As a result, art practices including

curatorial practices come with a fair amount of improvisation (one curator

calls this practice free-floating), learning on the job and resourcefulness on

the practitioners part. Another result is little specialization (many curators

have multiple jobs, they can at the very same time also be artists, teachers,

gallery owners, art critics, etc.). Indonesian universities do not have art history

or curatorial practice study programs. None of the Indonesian curators has an

educational background in art history, curatorial practice or art criticism

(except for the occasional workshop participated in abroad curator Alia

Swastika, for example, took curatorial training at De Appel in Amsterdam

which more often than not will not be tailored to the Indonesian context and

local needs).

Indonesia lacks an art museum that collects, preserves and exhibits

artworks accessible for the general public, and by so doing can put these

artworks in a context (visual, art historical and discursive), so we can learn to


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experience and appreciate modern and contemporary art from Indonesia.

Biennales and other impermanent exhibitions offer now this context and serve

as temporary museums for contemporary art in Indonesia. However, more is

needed. And an art museum could be one element for this purpose (I am,thus, not arguing that the establishment of an art museum would suffice).

Indonesia does not have an art museum and different arguments can

be offered why Indonesia needs one. I begin with the most common

arguments why Indonesia needs a proper art museum (beyond the question

whether it is public or private funded, as long as it is open for the public, which

does not necessarily mean free admission). These arguments focus on

artists, curators, the (art) market and the nation. However, there is another

argument then the ones commonly used, and this argument focuses on the

audience.

The most common argument heard in Indonesian is the one made by

some curators: such a museum could function as an institute that supports

processes of validation of contemporary art practices and its developments in

Indonesia. This argument focuses on the question what artists and artworks

should be included in the collective visual memory (art history and theory play

also a role in such a canonization). The curator Asmudjo Jono Irianto claims

that in Indonesia only the art market performs this role (it seems that curators

in Indonesia often downplay the significance of their job). And curator Rifky

Effendy goes so far to claim that his main job is to put artists and their works

into the market, in this role the curator can be considered a consultant to

gallery owners and art collectors (an additional role is that of talent scout).

A much older argument is that such a museum could be one element in

the process of nation building and its visual culture (Benedict Andersons

imagined community comes to mind, such a community is not imaginary).

Many (art) museums in Europe were established for this purpose during the

nineteenth century; Indonesians, though, have good reasons to distrust this

argument after their experiences during Suharto's New Order regime (1966-

1998), which only allowed for one way to tell and show the story of the nation.


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Another argument is that such a museum could provide artists

additional financial support outside the regular art market. The Singapore Art

Museum (http://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/), for example, focuses on

artworks, such as installations, that are not interesting for most privatecollectors. It is also in the interest of artists that their oeuvre and the oeuvres

of other artists remains visible and accessible (and not merely through a

personal websites).

And some other (instrumental) arguments have been put forward: it

could improve Indonesias image abroad (Indonesia is, for example, more

than an abundant reservoir of cheap labor exported to Singapore, Hong Kong,

the Middle East and elsewhere); and by improving its image beyond the exotic

clichs, Indonesias power could increase (this is Joseph Samuel Nyes soft

power argument); and, in turn, it could bolster Indonesias GDP (this is

Richard Floridas creative industry argument), for example through tourism.

These above arguments have, in different degrees, validity; however,

they leave out the audience as above arguments focus on artists, curators,

the market and the nation. And this seems to be a general problem in

Indonesia. Even when an exhibition can be considered an artistic (and/or

commercial) success, too little effort is made to grab the attention of a public

outside the usual suspects: fellow artists, curators, art critics and collectors,

which is a relatively small (but vibrant) community. The 2011 Yogyakarta

Biennale, for example, was artistically very successful, however, no one in the

city I spoke with knew about this event or the location of one of the venues

(the National Museum of Yogyakarta; museum is too big of a name as it does

not collect art, and it is odd that its name is in English, the lingua francaof

contemporary art, which leads to obvious problems of translation in Indonesia

and elsewhere).

An art museum should function as a collective visual memory and by

showing its collection, we can return time after time to those collected

artworks. We can familiarize ourselves with artworks and we can compare

these with other artworks (also from different periods and styles). And by

being able to do so, we not only become acquainted with artworks and


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developments in the arts, we become able to experience art more fully.

Moreover, we become able to appreciate art. And experiencing art requires

time.

In Indonesia, we can go to a gallery and see an exhibition forexample Yudi Yudoyoko's superb solo exhibition at Selasar Sunaryo Art

Space in Bandung (27 january 19 February 2012,

http://selasarsunaryo.com/) and then the works are gone (very possible

forever, only to surface again at an auction house to disappear again from

sight).

Now private museums, exhibition catalogs, magazines, websites,

libraries (for example the library of Ruang Depan/S.14 in Bandung;

http://ruangdepans14.blogspot.com/) and the Indonesian Visual Art Archive in

Yogyakarta (http://www.ivaa-online.org/) fill parts of the void, but, again, more

is needed.

Some argue that a virtual art museum could be a feasible alternative

(see, for example, www.googleartproject.com, which shows art from several

museums around the world). However, a virtual art museum is no alternative

to the physical experience of art in an actual exhibition space. We should not

forget that all art is physical, and, therefore, we relate to art in a physical way,

which requires a spatial setting.

An art museum might also improve the quality of art writing: perhaps

one reason why so many Indonesian art writers focus on art discourse instead

of art history, is because texts are easier to come by compared to the actual

artworks. Often, an artwork is still in the making when a curator has to submit

her or his curatorial essay for the exhibition catalog publication. In a

discussion with Tony Godfrey for Broadsheet, Agung Hujatnikajennong, head

curator of Selasar Sunaryo Art Space and the successful 2009 Jakarta

Biennale, said that the notion of curatorial practice has always been like a

free-floating job [in Indonesia]. Art writing and curatorial practice could

improve with a publicly accessible visual memory in the form of an art

museum (which is not located in Singapore or elsewhere outside Indonesia).

My argument could thus very well support the first argument, and vice versa.


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If we are able to return time after time to an art museum with a

permanent collection (but with rotating exhibitions so the collection does not

become static as is the case in Museum Seni Rupa dan Keramik, i.e. Fine

Arts and Ceramics Mueum, in Jakarta, which seems to have stoppedcollecting new works a few decades ago), we could learn to experience and

appreciate art firsthand, and we might also become able to express better

why we love certain artworks by certain artists and not other artworks (or

artworks from the very same artist).

Such an art museum could provide the much-needed context to the

fleeting exhibitions organized at galleries and independent art spaces,

because now contemporaneity (an awful tongue-twister) in general and

contemporary art in particular are ephemeral and complex (perhaps even

amnesiac). During the 2011 Singapore Biennale

(http://www.singaporebiennale.org/), the Singapore Art Museum organized

two parallel exhibitions: Its Now or never II, New Contemporary Art

Acquisitions from Southeast Asia and Negotiating Home, History and Nation,

Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011. Many of the

big names of the contemporary art scene in Indonesia were present at these

two parallel events with fantastic works: Agus Suwage, Eko Nugroho, Heri

Dono, Jompet, Mella Jaarsma, FX Harsono, Titarubi and many others. And I

hope that one day these artworks will be shown again in Indonesia to the

general public.

As in other parts of Indonesias socio-cultural life, the arts are in a

Catch-22 situation: the ambition to found an art museum requires funding

to purchase or construct a building and make it suitable for exhibitions; to

purchase, catalog and preserve artworks; to hire and train qualified staff; to

install a security system and insurance; to do research and publish; etc. but

funding can only be attracted from the state and private partners (not only in

cash, but also tax exemptions, in kind such as a building and loans of

artworks, etc.) if public interest in the arts increases substantially. And, in turn,

public interest in the arts might probably only increase if Indonesia has

established a well-functioning art museum.


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To convince state institutions and private parties (including sponsors

and art collectors) that an art museum is feasible, existing art organizations

will have to cooperate. Art organizations like Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta

(http://www.cemetiarthouse.com/), Common Room Networks Foundation inBandung (http://commonroom.info/) and ruangrupa in Jakarta

(http://ruangrupa.org/) have proven that they do more than fill the gap left by

the state without the need to copy strategies that have proven to be

successful outside Indonesia (these three organizations depend on foreign

donors, which might be a cause of concern if these donors have to cut their

budgets due to the global financial crisis). However, fragmentation needs to

be overcome to be a partner to state institutions and private parties and to

increase public interest in the arts to make a more compelling argument that

an art museum in Indonesia is not merely needed but also feasible.

Still, the state is seen as the cause of as well as the solution for the

dire situation of the arts infrastructure in Indonesia. The curator Rizky Zaelani,

for example, wrote: When the states bureaucracy is not or, perhaps, not

yet able to organize its wealth so that it can support and develop

infrastructures for the art, the fate of the art development cannot be

supported by strong and capable institutions. As a result, various artistic

events are held with neither coordination nor long-term plans (Rizky Zaelani,

Interpellation: Notes on a common language of comparison in international

art events, Interpellation, CP Biennale 2003 catalog (Jakarta: CP Foundation,

2003); http://biennale.cp-foundation.org/2003/essays02.html). A good

exhibition is indeed no guarantee for the future. The 2009 Jakarta Biennale

was a, artistic success, while the 2011 Jakarta Biennale was too disorganized

to appreciate the artworks (for example, there was no catalog available,

artworks and wall texts were chaotically displayed). But is the state to blame

for this?

There is an obvious counterargument available for the state: Indonesia

has an abundance of more pressing problems to address, for example (urban)

poverty. Moreover, to speak in terms of the absent state in regard to the arts

is an overstatement: Approximately one third of the budget of the recent


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Yogyakarta Biennale came from the (local) state. The Jakarta Biennale is

partly and indirectly state funded as well through the Jakarta Arts Council

(DKJ). And all four venues at the two biennales are state-owned: the National

Gallery and the Jakarta Art Center Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) for the JakartaBiennale, and the National Museum of Yogyakarta and Taman Budaya for the

Yogyakarta Biennale.

It can also be argued, on the other hand, that it might be prudent for the

art community in Indonesia not to rely too much on the state for building and

maintaining an arts infrastructure as the Indonesian state is notorious for

corruption, collusion and nepotism (better-known as KKN). Public projects

never leave the drawing table, or come to a standstill, such as the monorail

project in Jakarta (public transportation and a public art museum should be

developed in tandem to make such a museum truly accessible; now, too often

art spaces can only be reached by private car), or, if they are finished, are not

well maintained (TIM is a good example). And in many public projects, parts

of the budget are siphoned off.

Bandung-based artist R.E. Hartanto recently financed the renovation of

Soemardja Art Gallery, a gallery at the campus of the oldest state university in

Indonesia of which Hartanto is an alumnus: ITB (the university only pays the

electricity bills, Aminudin Th. Siregar, the manager of the gallery, is also a

lecturer at the art school; Tan Li-Jen called Soemardja a university art

museum, but it is a gallery and it is therefore not odd, as Tan Li-Jen claims it

is, that it does not have its own collection; see http://edoc.hu-

berlin.de/docviews/abstract.php?lang=ger&id=39071).

Partnerships between artists and art spaces could be an interesting

step forward. However, art spaces also need to collaborate more to tackle the

fragmentation in the arts community in Indonesia. Such collaboration

between artists and art spaces (another example is Platform3 in Bandung, a

collaborative space between artists and curators;

http://infoplatform3.wordpress.com), and between art spaces could be a

way to institutionalize an arts infrastructure from the bottom-up (I admit, this

could be a Sisyphus project). Founding an art museum could then become the


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focal point for the further development of an arts infrastructure. Hoping for the

state to step in and if it does, that it will do it properly might very well turn

out to be like a Kafkaesque wait for Godot.

Without question, art in Indonesia is thriving; there are many interestingartists and art spaces doing wonderful things. However, if this success is to be

prolonged, discussions on the sustainability of ideas and practices, financial

sustainability and infrastructure are vital.

Roy Voragen, from the Netherlands, resides in Indonesia since 2003; he is a

writer.

drawing by R.E. Hartanto(undated and untitled)

Documents

not for publication – talk at Studio Bibliothèque, Singapore - Roy Voragen