Political art and artists
Moelyono, FX Harsono and Dadang Christanto are three artists who used their art to express criticism of the socio/political environment of the Suharto regime through the 1980s and were selected for international exhibition in the 1990s. Moelyono and Harsono emerged from the art student activism of the 1970s of Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru and have often worked together. They have both exhibited with the Cemeti gallery, but Dadang has not. A study of the work and careers of these three artists reflects the complexity of the relationship between local activist art and international exhibitions, and indicates why some career structures and approaches to work are more successful internationally than others. Moelyono works almost entirely with village communities in activities that don.t easily translate to the gallery exhibition system; Harsono must support himself with a graphic design studio while Dadang has effectively left Indonesia and has constructed a career away from the subject of his art.
Moelyono.s focus on rural life highlights the distinct divide in Indonesia between the urban middle class and their interests and those of the rural villagers who still constitute the majority of the population.1 His work in Central and Eastern Java gives a particular insight into the repressed and exploited conditions of rural villages, and an appreciation of his art practice is a way to experience those Indonesians whose life is far removed from the urban society and art that usually represents Indonesia internationally. He exhibits his work in art gallery spaces and has developed international contacts but his career and oeuvre sit uncomfortably both with Indonesian artistic conventions and those of the international biennales.
1 Ubanisation stood at 41% in the last census was taken in 2000, note figures quoted from Badan Pusat Statistik, http://www.library.uu.nl/wesp/populstat/Asia/indonesg.htm accessed 19/10/06.
Moelyono was a radical at odds with the art establishment from his student days and
committed to using art to assist marginalised and underprivileged people. He rejects stereotypical depictions of these people, such as images of emaciated farmers or downtrodden workers, saying such “….contemporary art only objectifies the poor.”2 He rejects socially sympathetic techniques that turn the people they purport to represent into political posters and passive subjects for painting “…no different from inanimate objects, scenery, flowers or a woman.s body.”3 Such work, he says, presents the underprivileged to an educated elite, it doesn.t empower them, and it perpetuates the traditional Javanese hierarchy that has one group speaking on behalf of another.4 Such art is an expressive outlet for the artist alone and “the problem of poverty ends up in a collector.s gallery. Silenced! Mute!”5
2 Tom Plummer, quoting Moelyono in, “Art for a better world”, Inside Indonesia No 53, January – March, 1998, p. 26. 3 Moelyono, “Seni Rupa Kagunan: a Process”, in Schiller, J. W. and B. Martin-Schiller, 1997 Imagining Indonesia : cultural politics and political culture, Athens, Ohio, Ohio University Center for International Studies, p. 122. 4 Moelyono interview, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta. 5 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p.122. 6 Schiller, 1997 ibid., pp.122 - 126. Tayub is a form of dance where men are invited to dance with a professional female dancer. A Kris is a wavy-edged knife, sometimes considered sacred. 7 R. Fadjri, “Moelyono.s art invites dialog on social issues,” The Jakarta Post, Sunday May (date unknown) 1997, p.14.
For Moelyono, dealing with poverty through art is the focus of his work. In his version of Indonesian art history, Sudjojono, Hendra Gunawan and Affandi were sympathetic to the plight of the poor but in the end their art was an art market commodity. Moelyono maintains that they adhered to the concept of high or fine art as the refined work of gifted individuals and distinct from the unrefined techniques of the people. Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru „smashed this aesthetic hegemony of the „fine arts.. and „democratised. art by incorporating the everyday. According to Moelyono GSRB only displayed popular idioms and icons, not the art of the people themselves who were still treated as „mute and passive. objects. Moelyono also challenges the Javanese definitions of high and low art through a linguistic analysis of the term, Kagunan, claiming that the Javanese word encompasses artists such as “…trance dancers, tayub dancers, painters and illustrators, keris makers and many others. The world of art does not know class distinction, only distinctions in the level of quality.” True democratisation was to recognise the work of such people as art.6
From his earliest student days Moelyono was an activist whose approach was similar to that of Joseph Beuys in his concept that everyone is an artist and everyone can make art. He has been called a Conceptual artist as the form his art takes is less important than the practice and discussion associated with it, and he uses the terms „praxis. and „dialogue. frequently.7 In his
first year at ASRI in 1977 there was considerable ferment on the campus and resistance to the artistic values being required of the students by the staff. Moelyono reported “When you painted with textured moss green, dark browns, sombre colours and decoratively, you got an A, while if you painted in a “Pop” style, you would only get C, or at best a B.” Their teachers, artists “…Pak Widayat and Pak Fadjar Sidik, were textbook representatives for the ideology of „high art.”.8
8 Hasan, A., 1998 "Moelyono dan Seni Rupa Penyadaran", Galeri Lontar, Jakarta. An interview between Asikin Hasan, curator at Lontar Gallery, with Moelyono for his exhibition, translated by Mien Joebhaar, 31/08/01, p.7. Pak, abbreviation of Bapak, literally „Father., but interpreted as an honorific, or „Sir.. 9 Biografi in Moelyono, 1995 Art Conscientization, The Reflection of the Wonorojo Dam Project, ARX 4 22 March – 16 April, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts WA.
His final submission for assessment was an installation concerning the poverty of farmers from Waung, a swampy area near Tulungagung where Moelyono was born and still lives. He laid out pandanus mats with banana leaf containers holding the limited produce from the farmers. waterlogged fields and other articles, which were intended to provoke a dialogue with the people on campus. Titled KUD, Kesenian Unit Desa, or Village Unit Art, it was rejected by the jury on the grounds it did “…not fulfil the requirement of an art work in the “Art of Painting Department.”9 It was, in fact, a conceptual work of art that challenged the concept of art itself and what art could be.
6.1.8: Moelyono, KUD, Kesenian Unit Desa, 1985
After art school Moelyono worked with FX Harsono in Jakarta in graphic design but free-lanced and began his association with NGOs, making posters and booklets concerning issues such as the degradation of the environment. His life.s work became using art to improve the situation of those who were victims of modernisation and development under the Suharto regime. He has been greatly influenced by Brazilian educator/philosopher, Paulo Freire, frequently using Freire.s term, Conscientization, from the Portuguese word for „consciousness. and interpreted to mean „consciousness-raising.. Freire proposed in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed that education should be used to heighten awareness of social, political and economic contradictions to empower people in recognising the causes of their oppression and taking control of their lives. Freire.s work was published in Indonesian as
Pendidikan sebagai praktek pembebasan, or Education, as a practice of freedom.10
10 Paulo Freire, 1984 Pendidikan sebagai praktek pembebasan, Jakarta, Gramedia. 11 Hasan, A., 1998 op.cit., p.1. 12 Interview Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta 13 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p130. 14 See Vickers, A., 2005 op.cit., pp. 193 - 194. Vickers describes the variety of experiences incurred under the transmigrasi program and few transmigran prospered.
The artist, according to Moelyono, should begin with a dialogue on equal terms with the people to awaken critical attitudes and help them express their social aims through their culture. Everyone has the potential to create art, not just those with talent, so Moelyono doesn.t teach artistic skills, he facilitates the people in developing their own.11 “I tell the children that drawing is easy and they can make a drawing by playing, drawing a line in the sand. They make a long line in the sand and after, if they like, they make a drawing.
With the drawing we discuss what problems they have and they discuss them by drawing.”12 In more formal terms Moelyono states:
The role of an arts worker is to assist in the regrowth of a popular artistic aesthetic by aiding in the creation of art forms of high quality rooted in the traditional culture, the environment, and everyday lifestyles. This also should not be seen merely as “social work”.13
Brumbun
In 1986 he began his „praxis of fine art. at Brumbun and the nearby village of Ngerangan, 26 km from Tulungagung on the southern coast of Java. Brumbun was a village of some 100 people, in approximately 34 households, who had been allowed to settle there in 1963 by the district authorities and the forestry service. They had been either landless in their original villages or failed transmigran, inhabitants of overpopulated areas who had been resettled in less populated areas.14 The district authorities allowed them to remain on the basis that they could not own the land they occupied and they must cultivate coconuts and pay a tax of coconuts and rice to Pak Mandur, the government official in control. They were extremely poor fishermen and farmers in an isolated, mosquito-ridden village, which could only be reached by a walk through the forest from the point where public transport ended.
Moelyono offered to become the art teacher at the very basic school they had in the village. His position was understood as that of a teacher rather than artist, as the concept of artist was unfamiliar to the villagers. The parents were concerned that his play activities took children from economically essential work, but when they held an exhibition in Tulungagung and sold
some of the works, the proceeds and donations provided books, school clothes and water containers for the village, and the parents became supportive of the project.15 Beginning with lines in the sand, Moelyono then introduced drawing on available paper. Scribbling led to simple shapes and then to objects observed by the children and significant events that affected their lives. The children would depict an event, such as a quarrel between villagers over water rights and, as it was reported:
15 Haryono, Endy and David, 1990 "Moelyono: art and social transformation", Inside Indonesia, No. 25, Dec. 1990, pp. 29 - 30. 16 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p.132.
The drawing that results is then displayed in a place that is frequently visited by people and the picture will carry a certain message (e.g., don.t quarrel loudly or else a picture will be drawn, displayed, and everyone will know about your quarrel).16 It was when the children made drawings of the burden their parents faced in delivering the tax to Pak Mandur on Sunday, carrying the coconuts to his house, which was 5 – 10
6.1.9: Left: boy drawing in sand;
Below Left: Wahyudi, Grade 2, Brumbun villagers fishing;
Below right: Karyono, Grade 5, Timber Robbery, (woodblock prints?)
kilometres away, that the drawings gained another dimension. Pak Mandur saw the children.s drawings when they displayed them on a bamboo wall in the village and became very angry. The police interrogated the Kepala Desa, or village headman, but he “…is very easy talking. He said, why are you angry? These drawings are only by children and they are very funny”. 17
17 Interview, Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta. 18 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p.134. 19 Interview, Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta.
Moelyono developed an exhibition of the village drawings and between 1987 and 1989 it travelled to Tulungagung Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Salatiga, Solo and eventually Jakarta, attracting both favourable and unfavourable attention. Moelyono.s attempt to develop a similar program with adults was stopped by the local district authority on the grounds that it was political.18 The officials, police and military visited the village and Moelyono was taken and interrogated, accused of being komunis, or being a communist, and although there was no violence, the „interrogation was not good.. They demanded that he obtain five different permits, which he was eventually able to do with the assistance of a contact in government, the „chief of culture..19
The exhibitions did provoke the dialogue he sought: with the villagers concerning their problems - with artists and with student activists and social scientists, and he also gained some financial support from an NGO. The catalogue from the Jakarta exhibition provided an opportunity for discussions with the Bupati, or regent of Tulungagung, who visited the villages and ordered the construction of a road with government funds.
6.1.10: Moelyono, Woodblock print used in installations accompanying the exhibition of children.s drawings, 1987 - 89.
The building of the road ended the isolation of the villages, it allowed them to sell their produce directly to the market and they gained the attention of the administration, which provided some welcome facilities. There was a “….program for school building, a program for cementing the floors, tiles replaced thatched roofs, the musholla, (a room or space for the daily prayers) was repaired, and for the fishermen, fibreglass boats on credit and a diesel
generator for electricity in the houses. Several village people opened stalls, bought motorcycles and one person boasted a satellite dish.”20 Moelyono also counts „non-material. benefits, such as consciousness-raising and awareness of rights, as achievements.
20 Hasan, A., 1998 op.cit., p.9. Bureaucratic recognition allowed the village to receive government funding for building facilities from such programs as INPRES, the Instruksi Presiden program. 21 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p. 135. 22 R. Fadjri, “Moelyono.s art invites dialog on social issues., The Jakarta Post, Sunday May (?) 1997. 23 Haryono, Endy and David, 1990 op.cit. 24 Interview, Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta.
Once again, though, access to the outside world was a two-edged sword and Moelyono has had to acknowledge the downside of such projects. The Indonesian government declared 1991 the „Visit Indonesia Year., and as part of this promotion the local government proposed that Brumbun bay become a tourist area. The intention was to build a parking area, a traditional restaurant, a crocodile farm and tennis courts, while at Ngerangan a swimming pool was to be built on the sawah, or wet rice fields, a footnote to the proposal bluntly noting: „local fishing village to be relocated..21 The people were being moved off their land by progress, development and tourism, the cornerstone policies of Suharto.s regime. A drawing by one child showed the upheaval in his family after their rice field was converted into the public swimming pool.22
In 1990 Moelyono was reported as saying, “The problem for the villagers is how to become involved in these projects to their benefit. I don.t know what will happen. The administration has forbidden any further formal meetings of the villagers to discuss their problems, as it is not permitted to discuss social problems at village level under existing law since 1974.”23 Moelyono left the village and began work on the Wonorejo dam project in 1995. In 2001 he said “…many people went to Brumbun because it is a very nice place…local tourists. It.s a good life, they have cars, motorcycles, television….no telephone, that is too difficult.”24 If one measures the loss of sawah against the gain of these material benefits, it is clear some villagers won and some lost in Suharto.s process of modernisation.
Marsinah
The death of Marsinah, a labour activist in a Surabaya watch factory, became one of the most public scandals of the Suharto regime. An exhibition at Dewan Kesenian Surabaya, the Surabaya Arts Centre, was organised by Moelyono with Marsinah.s co-workers on the Javanese 100th day of commemoration after her death, but three hours before it was to open on August 12th, 1993, the police ordered that the exhibition be cancelled.
Marsinah had been in the forefront of protests at the watch factory, PT Catur Putra Surya, where she worked, demanding the government-approved minimum wage be paid to the employees. In May 1993 some of the protesters were taken into custody by the military and although Marsinah was not one of them, after she visited the military offices enquiring after her friends, she disappeared. Three days later her body was found in a hut next to a rice field 200 km from the factory. She had been tortured and raped and suspicion fell on the military who had been supporting and enforcing the factory owners. policies. There was a ground swell of protest until by July every newspaper in Java had carried the story.25 The protest was a consolidation of all the current debates concerning freedom of expression, workers rights and the safety of female workers. A month after her death, representatives of twenty-seven NGOs and human rights groups as well as other prominent people had formed the Komite Solidaritas Untuk Marsinah, the Marsinah Solidarity Committee or KSUM, to pressure the authorities for an enquiry and to reinstate the sacked employees. The exhibition, Pameran Seni Rupa Untuk Marsinah, Art Exhibition for Marsinah, was an
6.1.11: Marsinah Poster
25 Benjamin Waters, “The Marsinah Murder”,
http://www.asia-pacific-action.org/southeastasia/indonesia/publications/doss1/marsinah.htm accessed 13/10/06; also version printed in Inside Indonesia No. 36, 1993.
6.1.12: Pameran Seni Rupa Untuk Marsinah, Surabaya, 1993.
account of the last days of Marsinah.s life and made references to her background and that of a whole generation of Indonesian workers who had come from farm to factory. Following his usual process, Moelyono worked on an equal footing with Marsinah.s friends and co-workers to make woodcuts and an installation as a process of healing.26
26 Interview, Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta. 27 Ewington, J., 1994 "The exhibition that never opened", Art and AsiaPacific (Australia) 1 (4): 34. 28 It is understood that the spontaneous Komentar often acts as safety valve for the expression of opinions suppressed by manners or authority, while the Diskusi is a more organised discussion often after an exhibition opening. 29 Goenawan Mohamad, “In Rural Java, Death Comes to a Fighter and a Dreamer”, International Herald Tribune, Thursday Jan 13, 1994, and Barbara Hatley, “Ratna Accused, and defiant”, Inside Indonesia, No. 55, July - September 1998. 30 Interview Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta.
The work included life-sized figures of straw, a portrait bust of Marsinah and cement plaques with the Javanese word „inggih., which means „yes. to someone in a higher position. By associating this traditional gesture of submission to authority with an exhibition of protest about that authority, they were “…deliberately breaching the bounds of traditional Indonesian protocol, as well as more contemporary restraints”.27 The police lieutenant colonel, Ahmad Rifai, was reported as saying in justification of its closure: “It was not an ordinary exhibition. Clearly there was an attempt to politicise the Marsinah case through the exhibition”. When guests arrived to closed doors, an impromptu discussion or Komentar 28 occurred that became part of the nation-wide protest, and although no photographs were permitted officially, some do exist of the exhibition, as seen above.
In 1994 Goenawan Mohamad published an emotive article in the International Herald Tribune entitled “In Rural Java, Death Comes to a Fighter and a Dreamer”, and Ratna Sarumpaet, the leading female playwright, wrote Marsinah: Nyanyian dari bawah tanah, Marsinah: a song from the underworld. In 1998 Ratna Sarumpaet wrote another piece, a monologue, Marsinah menggugat or Marsinah accuses, as a political protest against Suharto.s rigged election. Her performance of it was banned and she was put in prison, one of the last to be imprisoned under the then crumbling Suharto government.29 Marsinah.s name has remained symbolic, provoking strong responses; but as Moelyono has said, “The International Labour Organisation, (ILO) which was influential put pressure on the Indonesian government, but we still don.t know who killed Marsinah.”30
Wonorejo Dam Project
Moelyono continued with his rural-based projects and formed the Yayasan Seni Rupa Komunitas, or the Community Art Foundation in 1993. His next project was associated with a dam development at Wonorejo village, approximately 20 km to the west of Tulungagung, in East Java. The project began in 1982 to provide water for the Surabaya industrial community and for local irrigation but was shelved for lack of funding. In 1994 the project was resurrected and 347 families were forced to move, many without fair compensation. Those with large properties were offered sufficient compensation to buy houses in Tulungagung and find other work, while those with little could only afford poor land or became landless. The army was backing the project and there was no choice but to accept what compensation was offered as the military were occupying the village. Worst affected were those farmers displaced for a „green belt. around the dam who received no compensation at all.31 The area was restricted and it was dangerous for Moelyono to enter without a local identity card but he said, “I collaborated with the press, writing about my activity,. and he was granted a permit on the basis that he cease all such publicity.32
31 Plummer, T., 1998 op.cit. 32 Interview Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta. 33 Interview Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta.
Moelyono sought to reinvigorate village culture disrupted by the displacement of the people by assisting a group of 30 performers and musicians to recreate their traditional performance of the Jaranan, or horse dance. The performance of the Jaranan had previously been banned as it was associated with Communist party activities. It involved giant horses made from cow leather and a series of dances culminating in one performed in a trance-induced state. The performance was cathartic, a release for tensions, but also a platform for discussion, for each rehearsal and performance was an opportunity for the villagers to discuss the issues affecting them. Moelyono credits their ability to negotiate a better price for the land to this increased awareness and confidence to articulate their issues.33
6.1.13: Art Conscientization catalogue, ARX 4, 1995.
In his own artwork Moelyono attempts to bridge the gap between village art and gallery exhibition. The concept of the Wonorejo project was reconstructed through his own exhibition, Seni Rupa Refleksi Lingkungan or Art Reflecting the Environment, at the Taman Budaya Surakarta Gallery, Central Java, in 1994. In 1995 he took his project to ARX 4 (Artists Regional Exchange), in Perth, Western Australia, and was supported for an intensive residency and exhibition at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts by the Sam Bung Foundation and the Australia Council.34 The booklet, Art Conscientization, The Reflection of the Wonorejo Dam Project, was produced for the exhibition and Moelyono organised a performance titled Yang Diikat, Those who are Bound, outside the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, or PICA. As one participant described it:
34 ARX 1995 Torque, Group: Indonesian artists: Moelyono, Arahmaiani, Agoes Hari Rahardjo (Agoes Jolly), Torque, Perth, Western Australia, Australia & Regions Artists' Exchange. The first ARX was held in September 1987 initiated by Praxis, then Western Australia.s Contemporary Art Space. The Sam Bung Foundation was established by Tom Plummer and Murdoch University colleagues for cultural exchange projects between Indonesia and Australia. Indonesian NGO and cultural workers travelled to Perth and took part in seminars, performances and exhibitions. In 2001 the Foundation was no longer operating owing to difficulty in obtaining sponsorship, (phone conversation, Tom Plummer). See Moelyono, 1995 Art Conscientization The Reflection of the Wonorejo Dam Project. A. 4. Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts WA. 35 A full description is given in Hillyer, Vivienne, 1997 Moelyono/Praxis, unpublished submission for B. Arts (Visual Arts), Edith Cowan University W.A. p.8.
….the performance involved a (modest) gathering of people, myself included, who were required to bind with yellow tape (the colour of the state party, Golkar) the performers….as peasants, villagers and farmers dance slowly and play traditional percussion.35
Moelyono has gained considerable recognition and respect from those who come in contact with him but while the transition from village to local or international exhibition is an important source of support, it has had its difficulties. An indication of the effect of selection is when he was included in the touring exhibition, Atopic Site in the Tokyo International Exhibition Center in 1996. The money
6.1.14: View of sawah from the back porch of Moelyono.s home, Tulungagung, East Java.
provided allowed Moelyono to buy land and build his house at Winong, in the sawah outside Tulungagung, for his installation art does not sell and, unlike some other Indonesian artists, he does not produce art in other media that is more easily marketable. Exhibitions organisers find his work awkward to manage and reviewers find it difficult to comprehend. A review of his installation exhibition, Tumpengan Kelapa, Ceremonial Coconuts36 at Galeri Bentang Budaya in Yogyakarta in 1997 stated, “Although Moelyono may be considered in step with contemporary art trends, the emotionally complex and testing nature of his work is no doubt too disturbing for many members of the Indonesian public.”37 Another (unidentified) review said, “Even if Moelyono has been frequently invited to international workshops, such as in Australia and in Japan, one needs to be more appealing in the market here”.38
36 The word for coconut, kelapa, is similar to the word for head, kepala, an association reinforced by the shape of the coconuts. 37 R Fadjri, “Moelyono.s art invites dialog on social issues”, The Jakarta Post, May 1970. 38 The reviews were provided by Moelyono and the sources not always recorded. 39 Sanggar bermain anak tani, SBAT, Play group of farmers. children, Exploring Vacuum 1, 2003, to be discussed further in this chapter. 40 Conversation, Yogyakarta, 12/05/05.
Cemeti has exhibited his installations on occasion, as part of their exhibition, Exploring Vacuum, in 2003,39 and recently with the villagers from Kebonsari in August 2004; but the didactic aspect of the work requires Moelyono providing explanation in person and in pamphlet form to interpret the symbolism and transmit the activities of the village children to the gallery exhibition. Although freedom of expression is no longer a problem since the collapse of the Suharto regime, Mella has expressed a personal aversion to art that is what she calls propagandist.40
6.1.15: Moelyono speaking at the opening of his exhibition, Setiap orang adalah pencipta kebudayaan, Everyone creates culture, April 2002, (gallery?).
International exhibitions
Moelyono has been invited to submit work internationally for exhibitions in Japan, in Australia for APT/3 in 1999, the Gwangju Biennale 2000, India in 2004 and a workshop in Malaysia in 2005. At APT/3 his work was titled Animal Sacrifice of the Orde Batu
(Stone Order), dated 1965 -1999. It included an up-turned car on a wooden frame, red-painted steps with offerings on them and banners with graffiti. The word, Cina (Chinese) was written on the car and Pribumi (indigenous native) on the banner behind, and referred to the attacks on ethnically Chinese Indonesians in the riots of 1998 as well as 1965. The installation is incomplete according to the description provided in the catalogue essay and headless statues that were to surround the car are missing. These statues were intended to refer to famous temple statues damaged by souvenir hunters for the tourist trade, and to the violence of 1965 when headless bodies floated in the rivers.41 The pun in the title also refers to these events, the Orde Batu being a play on Suharto.s Orde Baru. Clearly, though, it was easier for the gallery staff in Queensland to obtain a burnt out car than headless statues. The references were confusing and required interpretation and the result was that his concepts were not translating well into an international survey exhibition. Caroline Turner stated that “The original concept for the work (was) unable to be realised at the time”,42 but it is more likely that Moelyono.s way of working translates only with difficulty to the international survey exhibition format.
6.1.16: Moelyono, Animal Sacrifice of the Orde Batu (Stone Order), dated 1965 -1999, installation, APT/3.
41 Adi Wicaksono, “Moelyono”, in Queensland Art Gallery, 1999 Beyond the future : the third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, South Brisbane, Qld., Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, p. 64. 42 Turner, C. ed., 2005 op.cit., p.208. 43 Moelyono, interview, Tulungagung, 10/05/05.
Moelyono himself says he does not find the transition from village to gallery difficult. His real work, he says, is in the village, that is his praxis or action, and the work in gallery is for reflection.43 The consciousness-raising activities of exhibiting are more important to him than his personal art practice and his creative energy remains in the villages in East Java around Tulungagung. Issues haven.t disappeared since the end of
the Suharto era: rather than emanating from the authorities down they have become „horizontal., he says, emerging from all levels of society.
6.1.17: The village of Sumber, near Ponorogo, East Java. Left: activities with preschool children, above, dancing to gamelan music; below songs with Moelyono.
SBAT
In farming communities near Ponorogo he is exploring both early childhood education and the effects of pesticide use in local farming. He has developed an early learning program for pre school children which he calls Sanggar Bermain Anak Tani, SBAT, the Farmers. Children Play Group, and is for villagers who cannot afford either the time or costs to send their children to school. His financial support used to come from the British NGO, Foster Parent Plan, but two years previously they withdrew their support because „they were a Christian organization and the villages were Muslim..44 Pressure also came from the pesantren or Islamic religious school below the village and children
44 Moelyono, interview Tulungagung, 10/05/05.
were withdrawn from Moelyono.s play group because his activities were not related to prayer rituals or Muslim activities. Moelyono.s primary interest concerned the traditional culture of the farmers, which was closer to the land and animist traditions; and he said, “…they didn.t like the villagers praying to the gods of the padi”. At the time of writing Moelyono was providing training without payment for the village mothers so they could continue preschool education themselves, and he himself was to commence a short-term contract for UNICEF in other parts of the archipelago.45 Moelyono.s entire output is another illustration of work and facilities provided by the creative inventiveness of individuals for want of arts infrastructure and government support for programs.
6.1.18: Moelyono, Sanggar Bermain Anak Tani, SBAT, installation, Cemeti Art House, Exploring Vacuum 1, 2003.
45 All information is the result of conversations during a visit to the area, 10th to 11th May, 2005.
Moelyono.s focus on rural life highlights the distinct divide in Indonesia between the urban middle class and their interests and those of the rural villagers who still constitute the majority of the population.1 His work in Central and Eastern Java gives a particular insight into the repressed and exploited conditions of rural villages, and an appreciation of his art practice is a way to experience those Indonesians whose life is far removed from the urban society and art that usually represents Indonesia internationally. He exhibits his work in art gallery spaces and has developed international contacts but his career and oeuvre sit uncomfortably both with Indonesian artistic conventions and those of the international biennales.
1 Ubanisation stood at 41% in the last census was taken in 2000, note figures quoted from Badan Pusat Statistik, http://www.library.uu.nl/wesp/populstat/Asia/indonesg.htm accessed 19/10/06.
Moelyono was a radical at odds with the art establishment from his student days and
committed to using art to assist marginalised and underprivileged people. He rejects stereotypical depictions of these people, such as images of emaciated farmers or downtrodden workers, saying such “….contemporary art only objectifies the poor.”2 He rejects socially sympathetic techniques that turn the people they purport to represent into political posters and passive subjects for painting “…no different from inanimate objects, scenery, flowers or a woman.s body.”3 Such work, he says, presents the underprivileged to an educated elite, it doesn.t empower them, and it perpetuates the traditional Javanese hierarchy that has one group speaking on behalf of another.4 Such art is an expressive outlet for the artist alone and “the problem of poverty ends up in a collector.s gallery. Silenced! Mute!”5
2 Tom Plummer, quoting Moelyono in, “Art for a better world”, Inside Indonesia No 53, January – March, 1998, p. 26. 3 Moelyono, “Seni Rupa Kagunan: a Process”, in Schiller, J. W. and B. Martin-Schiller, 1997 Imagining Indonesia : cultural politics and political culture, Athens, Ohio, Ohio University Center for International Studies, p. 122. 4 Moelyono interview, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta. 5 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p.122. 6 Schiller, 1997 ibid., pp.122 - 126. Tayub is a form of dance where men are invited to dance with a professional female dancer. A Kris is a wavy-edged knife, sometimes considered sacred. 7 R. Fadjri, “Moelyono.s art invites dialog on social issues,” The Jakarta Post, Sunday May (date unknown) 1997, p.14.
For Moelyono, dealing with poverty through art is the focus of his work. In his version of Indonesian art history, Sudjojono, Hendra Gunawan and Affandi were sympathetic to the plight of the poor but in the end their art was an art market commodity. Moelyono maintains that they adhered to the concept of high or fine art as the refined work of gifted individuals and distinct from the unrefined techniques of the people. Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru „smashed this aesthetic hegemony of the „fine arts.. and „democratised. art by incorporating the everyday. According to Moelyono GSRB only displayed popular idioms and icons, not the art of the people themselves who were still treated as „mute and passive. objects. Moelyono also challenges the Javanese definitions of high and low art through a linguistic analysis of the term, Kagunan, claiming that the Javanese word encompasses artists such as “…trance dancers, tayub dancers, painters and illustrators, keris makers and many others. The world of art does not know class distinction, only distinctions in the level of quality.” True democratisation was to recognise the work of such people as art.6
From his earliest student days Moelyono was an activist whose approach was similar to that of Joseph Beuys in his concept that everyone is an artist and everyone can make art. He has been called a Conceptual artist as the form his art takes is less important than the practice and discussion associated with it, and he uses the terms „praxis. and „dialogue. frequently.7 In his
first year at ASRI in 1977 there was considerable ferment on the campus and resistance to the artistic values being required of the students by the staff. Moelyono reported “When you painted with textured moss green, dark browns, sombre colours and decoratively, you got an A, while if you painted in a “Pop” style, you would only get C, or at best a B.” Their teachers, artists “…Pak Widayat and Pak Fadjar Sidik, were textbook representatives for the ideology of „high art.”.8
8 Hasan, A., 1998 "Moelyono dan Seni Rupa Penyadaran", Galeri Lontar, Jakarta. An interview between Asikin Hasan, curator at Lontar Gallery, with Moelyono for his exhibition, translated by Mien Joebhaar, 31/08/01, p.7. Pak, abbreviation of Bapak, literally „Father., but interpreted as an honorific, or „Sir.. 9 Biografi in Moelyono, 1995 Art Conscientization, The Reflection of the Wonorojo Dam Project, ARX 4 22 March – 16 April, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts WA.
His final submission for assessment was an installation concerning the poverty of farmers from Waung, a swampy area near Tulungagung where Moelyono was born and still lives. He laid out pandanus mats with banana leaf containers holding the limited produce from the farmers. waterlogged fields and other articles, which were intended to provoke a dialogue with the people on campus. Titled KUD, Kesenian Unit Desa, or Village Unit Art, it was rejected by the jury on the grounds it did “…not fulfil the requirement of an art work in the “Art of Painting Department.”9 It was, in fact, a conceptual work of art that challenged the concept of art itself and what art could be.
6.1.8: Moelyono, KUD, Kesenian Unit Desa, 1985
After art school Moelyono worked with FX Harsono in Jakarta in graphic design but free-lanced and began his association with NGOs, making posters and booklets concerning issues such as the degradation of the environment. His life.s work became using art to improve the situation of those who were victims of modernisation and development under the Suharto regime. He has been greatly influenced by Brazilian educator/philosopher, Paulo Freire, frequently using Freire.s term, Conscientization, from the Portuguese word for „consciousness. and interpreted to mean „consciousness-raising.. Freire proposed in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed that education should be used to heighten awareness of social, political and economic contradictions to empower people in recognising the causes of their oppression and taking control of their lives. Freire.s work was published in Indonesian as
Pendidikan sebagai praktek pembebasan, or Education, as a practice of freedom.10
10 Paulo Freire, 1984 Pendidikan sebagai praktek pembebasan, Jakarta, Gramedia. 11 Hasan, A., 1998 op.cit., p.1. 12 Interview Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta 13 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p130. 14 See Vickers, A., 2005 op.cit., pp. 193 - 194. Vickers describes the variety of experiences incurred under the transmigrasi program and few transmigran prospered.
The artist, according to Moelyono, should begin with a dialogue on equal terms with the people to awaken critical attitudes and help them express their social aims through their culture. Everyone has the potential to create art, not just those with talent, so Moelyono doesn.t teach artistic skills, he facilitates the people in developing their own.11 “I tell the children that drawing is easy and they can make a drawing by playing, drawing a line in the sand. They make a long line in the sand and after, if they like, they make a drawing.
With the drawing we discuss what problems they have and they discuss them by drawing.”12 In more formal terms Moelyono states:
The role of an arts worker is to assist in the regrowth of a popular artistic aesthetic by aiding in the creation of art forms of high quality rooted in the traditional culture, the environment, and everyday lifestyles. This also should not be seen merely as “social work”.13
Brumbun
In 1986 he began his „praxis of fine art. at Brumbun and the nearby village of Ngerangan, 26 km from Tulungagung on the southern coast of Java. Brumbun was a village of some 100 people, in approximately 34 households, who had been allowed to settle there in 1963 by the district authorities and the forestry service. They had been either landless in their original villages or failed transmigran, inhabitants of overpopulated areas who had been resettled in less populated areas.14 The district authorities allowed them to remain on the basis that they could not own the land they occupied and they must cultivate coconuts and pay a tax of coconuts and rice to Pak Mandur, the government official in control. They were extremely poor fishermen and farmers in an isolated, mosquito-ridden village, which could only be reached by a walk through the forest from the point where public transport ended.
Moelyono offered to become the art teacher at the very basic school they had in the village. His position was understood as that of a teacher rather than artist, as the concept of artist was unfamiliar to the villagers. The parents were concerned that his play activities took children from economically essential work, but when they held an exhibition in Tulungagung and sold
some of the works, the proceeds and donations provided books, school clothes and water containers for the village, and the parents became supportive of the project.15 Beginning with lines in the sand, Moelyono then introduced drawing on available paper. Scribbling led to simple shapes and then to objects observed by the children and significant events that affected their lives. The children would depict an event, such as a quarrel between villagers over water rights and, as it was reported:
15 Haryono, Endy and David, 1990 "Moelyono: art and social transformation", Inside Indonesia, No. 25, Dec. 1990, pp. 29 - 30. 16 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p.132.
The drawing that results is then displayed in a place that is frequently visited by people and the picture will carry a certain message (e.g., don.t quarrel loudly or else a picture will be drawn, displayed, and everyone will know about your quarrel).16 It was when the children made drawings of the burden their parents faced in delivering the tax to Pak Mandur on Sunday, carrying the coconuts to his house, which was 5 – 10
6.1.9: Left: boy drawing in sand;
Below Left: Wahyudi, Grade 2, Brumbun villagers fishing;
Below right: Karyono, Grade 5, Timber Robbery, (woodblock prints?)
kilometres away, that the drawings gained another dimension. Pak Mandur saw the children.s drawings when they displayed them on a bamboo wall in the village and became very angry. The police interrogated the Kepala Desa, or village headman, but he “…is very easy talking. He said, why are you angry? These drawings are only by children and they are very funny”. 17
17 Interview, Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta. 18 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p.134. 19 Interview, Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta.
Moelyono developed an exhibition of the village drawings and between 1987 and 1989 it travelled to Tulungagung Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Salatiga, Solo and eventually Jakarta, attracting both favourable and unfavourable attention. Moelyono.s attempt to develop a similar program with adults was stopped by the local district authority on the grounds that it was political.18 The officials, police and military visited the village and Moelyono was taken and interrogated, accused of being komunis, or being a communist, and although there was no violence, the „interrogation was not good.. They demanded that he obtain five different permits, which he was eventually able to do with the assistance of a contact in government, the „chief of culture..19
The exhibitions did provoke the dialogue he sought: with the villagers concerning their problems - with artists and with student activists and social scientists, and he also gained some financial support from an NGO. The catalogue from the Jakarta exhibition provided an opportunity for discussions with the Bupati, or regent of Tulungagung, who visited the villages and ordered the construction of a road with government funds.
6.1.10: Moelyono, Woodblock print used in installations accompanying the exhibition of children.s drawings, 1987 - 89.
The building of the road ended the isolation of the villages, it allowed them to sell their produce directly to the market and they gained the attention of the administration, which provided some welcome facilities. There was a “….program for school building, a program for cementing the floors, tiles replaced thatched roofs, the musholla, (a room or space for the daily prayers) was repaired, and for the fishermen, fibreglass boats on credit and a diesel
generator for electricity in the houses. Several village people opened stalls, bought motorcycles and one person boasted a satellite dish.”20 Moelyono also counts „non-material. benefits, such as consciousness-raising and awareness of rights, as achievements.
20 Hasan, A., 1998 op.cit., p.9. Bureaucratic recognition allowed the village to receive government funding for building facilities from such programs as INPRES, the Instruksi Presiden program. 21 Schiller, 1997 op.cit., p. 135. 22 R. Fadjri, “Moelyono.s art invites dialog on social issues., The Jakarta Post, Sunday May (?) 1997. 23 Haryono, Endy and David, 1990 op.cit. 24 Interview, Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta.
Once again, though, access to the outside world was a two-edged sword and Moelyono has had to acknowledge the downside of such projects. The Indonesian government declared 1991 the „Visit Indonesia Year., and as part of this promotion the local government proposed that Brumbun bay become a tourist area. The intention was to build a parking area, a traditional restaurant, a crocodile farm and tennis courts, while at Ngerangan a swimming pool was to be built on the sawah, or wet rice fields, a footnote to the proposal bluntly noting: „local fishing village to be relocated..21 The people were being moved off their land by progress, development and tourism, the cornerstone policies of Suharto.s regime. A drawing by one child showed the upheaval in his family after their rice field was converted into the public swimming pool.22
In 1990 Moelyono was reported as saying, “The problem for the villagers is how to become involved in these projects to their benefit. I don.t know what will happen. The administration has forbidden any further formal meetings of the villagers to discuss their problems, as it is not permitted to discuss social problems at village level under existing law since 1974.”23 Moelyono left the village and began work on the Wonorejo dam project in 1995. In 2001 he said “…many people went to Brumbun because it is a very nice place…local tourists. It.s a good life, they have cars, motorcycles, television….no telephone, that is too difficult.”24 If one measures the loss of sawah against the gain of these material benefits, it is clear some villagers won and some lost in Suharto.s process of modernisation.
Marsinah
The death of Marsinah, a labour activist in a Surabaya watch factory, became one of the most public scandals of the Suharto regime. An exhibition at Dewan Kesenian Surabaya, the Surabaya Arts Centre, was organised by Moelyono with Marsinah.s co-workers on the Javanese 100th day of commemoration after her death, but three hours before it was to open on August 12th, 1993, the police ordered that the exhibition be cancelled.
Marsinah had been in the forefront of protests at the watch factory, PT Catur Putra Surya, where she worked, demanding the government-approved minimum wage be paid to the employees. In May 1993 some of the protesters were taken into custody by the military and although Marsinah was not one of them, after she visited the military offices enquiring after her friends, she disappeared. Three days later her body was found in a hut next to a rice field 200 km from the factory. She had been tortured and raped and suspicion fell on the military who had been supporting and enforcing the factory owners. policies. There was a ground swell of protest until by July every newspaper in Java had carried the story.25 The protest was a consolidation of all the current debates concerning freedom of expression, workers rights and the safety of female workers. A month after her death, representatives of twenty-seven NGOs and human rights groups as well as other prominent people had formed the Komite Solidaritas Untuk Marsinah, the Marsinah Solidarity Committee or KSUM, to pressure the authorities for an enquiry and to reinstate the sacked employees. The exhibition, Pameran Seni Rupa Untuk Marsinah, Art Exhibition for Marsinah, was an
6.1.11: Marsinah Poster
25 Benjamin Waters, “The Marsinah Murder”,
http://www.asia-pacific-action.org/southeastasia/indonesia/publications/doss1/marsinah.htm accessed 13/10/06; also version printed in Inside Indonesia No. 36, 1993.
6.1.12: Pameran Seni Rupa Untuk Marsinah, Surabaya, 1993.
account of the last days of Marsinah.s life and made references to her background and that of a whole generation of Indonesian workers who had come from farm to factory. Following his usual process, Moelyono worked on an equal footing with Marsinah.s friends and co-workers to make woodcuts and an installation as a process of healing.26
26 Interview, Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta. 27 Ewington, J., 1994 "The exhibition that never opened", Art and AsiaPacific (Australia) 1 (4): 34. 28 It is understood that the spontaneous Komentar often acts as safety valve for the expression of opinions suppressed by manners or authority, while the Diskusi is a more organised discussion often after an exhibition opening. 29 Goenawan Mohamad, “In Rural Java, Death Comes to a Fighter and a Dreamer”, International Herald Tribune, Thursday Jan 13, 1994, and Barbara Hatley, “Ratna Accused, and defiant”, Inside Indonesia, No. 55, July - September 1998. 30 Interview Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta.
The work included life-sized figures of straw, a portrait bust of Marsinah and cement plaques with the Javanese word „inggih., which means „yes. to someone in a higher position. By associating this traditional gesture of submission to authority with an exhibition of protest about that authority, they were “…deliberately breaching the bounds of traditional Indonesian protocol, as well as more contemporary restraints”.27 The police lieutenant colonel, Ahmad Rifai, was reported as saying in justification of its closure: “It was not an ordinary exhibition. Clearly there was an attempt to politicise the Marsinah case through the exhibition”. When guests arrived to closed doors, an impromptu discussion or Komentar 28 occurred that became part of the nation-wide protest, and although no photographs were permitted officially, some do exist of the exhibition, as seen above.
In 1994 Goenawan Mohamad published an emotive article in the International Herald Tribune entitled “In Rural Java, Death Comes to a Fighter and a Dreamer”, and Ratna Sarumpaet, the leading female playwright, wrote Marsinah: Nyanyian dari bawah tanah, Marsinah: a song from the underworld. In 1998 Ratna Sarumpaet wrote another piece, a monologue, Marsinah menggugat or Marsinah accuses, as a political protest against Suharto.s rigged election. Her performance of it was banned and she was put in prison, one of the last to be imprisoned under the then crumbling Suharto government.29 Marsinah.s name has remained symbolic, provoking strong responses; but as Moelyono has said, “The International Labour Organisation, (ILO) which was influential put pressure on the Indonesian government, but we still don.t know who killed Marsinah.”30
Wonorejo Dam Project
Moelyono continued with his rural-based projects and formed the Yayasan Seni Rupa Komunitas, or the Community Art Foundation in 1993. His next project was associated with a dam development at Wonorejo village, approximately 20 km to the west of Tulungagung, in East Java. The project began in 1982 to provide water for the Surabaya industrial community and for local irrigation but was shelved for lack of funding. In 1994 the project was resurrected and 347 families were forced to move, many without fair compensation. Those with large properties were offered sufficient compensation to buy houses in Tulungagung and find other work, while those with little could only afford poor land or became landless. The army was backing the project and there was no choice but to accept what compensation was offered as the military were occupying the village. Worst affected were those farmers displaced for a „green belt. around the dam who received no compensation at all.31 The area was restricted and it was dangerous for Moelyono to enter without a local identity card but he said, “I collaborated with the press, writing about my activity,. and he was granted a permit on the basis that he cease all such publicity.32
31 Plummer, T., 1998 op.cit. 32 Interview Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta. 33 Interview Moelyono, 12/07/01, Yogyakarta.
Moelyono sought to reinvigorate village culture disrupted by the displacement of the people by assisting a group of 30 performers and musicians to recreate their traditional performance of the Jaranan, or horse dance. The performance of the Jaranan had previously been banned as it was associated with Communist party activities. It involved giant horses made from cow leather and a series of dances culminating in one performed in a trance-induced state. The performance was cathartic, a release for tensions, but also a platform for discussion, for each rehearsal and performance was an opportunity for the villagers to discuss the issues affecting them. Moelyono credits their ability to negotiate a better price for the land to this increased awareness and confidence to articulate their issues.33
6.1.13: Art Conscientization catalogue, ARX 4, 1995.
In his own artwork Moelyono attempts to bridge the gap between village art and gallery exhibition. The concept of the Wonorejo project was reconstructed through his own exhibition, Seni Rupa Refleksi Lingkungan or Art Reflecting the Environment, at the Taman Budaya Surakarta Gallery, Central Java, in 1994. In 1995 he took his project to ARX 4 (Artists Regional Exchange), in Perth, Western Australia, and was supported for an intensive residency and exhibition at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts by the Sam Bung Foundation and the Australia Council.34 The booklet, Art Conscientization, The Reflection of the Wonorejo Dam Project, was produced for the exhibition and Moelyono organised a performance titled Yang Diikat, Those who are Bound, outside the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, or PICA. As one participant described it:
34 ARX 1995 Torque, Group: Indonesian artists: Moelyono, Arahmaiani, Agoes Hari Rahardjo (Agoes Jolly), Torque, Perth, Western Australia, Australia & Regions Artists' Exchange. The first ARX was held in September 1987 initiated by Praxis, then Western Australia.s Contemporary Art Space. The Sam Bung Foundation was established by Tom Plummer and Murdoch University colleagues for cultural exchange projects between Indonesia and Australia. Indonesian NGO and cultural workers travelled to Perth and took part in seminars, performances and exhibitions. In 2001 the Foundation was no longer operating owing to difficulty in obtaining sponsorship, (phone conversation, Tom Plummer). See Moelyono, 1995 Art Conscientization The Reflection of the Wonorejo Dam Project. A. 4. Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts WA. 35 A full description is given in Hillyer, Vivienne, 1997 Moelyono/Praxis, unpublished submission for B. Arts (Visual Arts), Edith Cowan University W.A. p.8.
….the performance involved a (modest) gathering of people, myself included, who were required to bind with yellow tape (the colour of the state party, Golkar) the performers….as peasants, villagers and farmers dance slowly and play traditional percussion.35
Moelyono has gained considerable recognition and respect from those who come in contact with him but while the transition from village to local or international exhibition is an important source of support, it has had its difficulties. An indication of the effect of selection is when he was included in the touring exhibition, Atopic Site in the Tokyo International Exhibition Center in 1996. The money
6.1.14: View of sawah from the back porch of Moelyono.s home, Tulungagung, East Java.
provided allowed Moelyono to buy land and build his house at Winong, in the sawah outside Tulungagung, for his installation art does not sell and, unlike some other Indonesian artists, he does not produce art in other media that is more easily marketable. Exhibitions organisers find his work awkward to manage and reviewers find it difficult to comprehend. A review of his installation exhibition, Tumpengan Kelapa, Ceremonial Coconuts36 at Galeri Bentang Budaya in Yogyakarta in 1997 stated, “Although Moelyono may be considered in step with contemporary art trends, the emotionally complex and testing nature of his work is no doubt too disturbing for many members of the Indonesian public.”37 Another (unidentified) review said, “Even if Moelyono has been frequently invited to international workshops, such as in Australia and in Japan, one needs to be more appealing in the market here”.38
36 The word for coconut, kelapa, is similar to the word for head, kepala, an association reinforced by the shape of the coconuts. 37 R Fadjri, “Moelyono.s art invites dialog on social issues”, The Jakarta Post, May 1970. 38 The reviews were provided by Moelyono and the sources not always recorded. 39 Sanggar bermain anak tani, SBAT, Play group of farmers. children, Exploring Vacuum 1, 2003, to be discussed further in this chapter. 40 Conversation, Yogyakarta, 12/05/05.
Cemeti has exhibited his installations on occasion, as part of their exhibition, Exploring Vacuum, in 2003,39 and recently with the villagers from Kebonsari in August 2004; but the didactic aspect of the work requires Moelyono providing explanation in person and in pamphlet form to interpret the symbolism and transmit the activities of the village children to the gallery exhibition. Although freedom of expression is no longer a problem since the collapse of the Suharto regime, Mella has expressed a personal aversion to art that is what she calls propagandist.40
6.1.15: Moelyono speaking at the opening of his exhibition, Setiap orang adalah pencipta kebudayaan, Everyone creates culture, April 2002, (gallery?).
International exhibitions
Moelyono has been invited to submit work internationally for exhibitions in Japan, in Australia for APT/3 in 1999, the Gwangju Biennale 2000, India in 2004 and a workshop in Malaysia in 2005. At APT/3 his work was titled Animal Sacrifice of the Orde Batu
(Stone Order), dated 1965 -1999. It included an up-turned car on a wooden frame, red-painted steps with offerings on them and banners with graffiti. The word, Cina (Chinese) was written on the car and Pribumi (indigenous native) on the banner behind, and referred to the attacks on ethnically Chinese Indonesians in the riots of 1998 as well as 1965. The installation is incomplete according to the description provided in the catalogue essay and headless statues that were to surround the car are missing. These statues were intended to refer to famous temple statues damaged by souvenir hunters for the tourist trade, and to the violence of 1965 when headless bodies floated in the rivers.41 The pun in the title also refers to these events, the Orde Batu being a play on Suharto.s Orde Baru. Clearly, though, it was easier for the gallery staff in Queensland to obtain a burnt out car than headless statues. The references were confusing and required interpretation and the result was that his concepts were not translating well into an international survey exhibition. Caroline Turner stated that “The original concept for the work (was) unable to be realised at the time”,42 but it is more likely that Moelyono.s way of working translates only with difficulty to the international survey exhibition format.
6.1.16: Moelyono, Animal Sacrifice of the Orde Batu (Stone Order), dated 1965 -1999, installation, APT/3.
41 Adi Wicaksono, “Moelyono”, in Queensland Art Gallery, 1999 Beyond the future : the third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, South Brisbane, Qld., Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, p. 64. 42 Turner, C. ed., 2005 op.cit., p.208. 43 Moelyono, interview, Tulungagung, 10/05/05.
Moelyono himself says he does not find the transition from village to gallery difficult. His real work, he says, is in the village, that is his praxis or action, and the work in gallery is for reflection.43 The consciousness-raising activities of exhibiting are more important to him than his personal art practice and his creative energy remains in the villages in East Java around Tulungagung. Issues haven.t disappeared since the end of
the Suharto era: rather than emanating from the authorities down they have become „horizontal., he says, emerging from all levels of society.
6.1.17: The village of Sumber, near Ponorogo, East Java. Left: activities with preschool children, above, dancing to gamelan music; below songs with Moelyono.
SBAT
In farming communities near Ponorogo he is exploring both early childhood education and the effects of pesticide use in local farming. He has developed an early learning program for pre school children which he calls Sanggar Bermain Anak Tani, SBAT, the Farmers. Children Play Group, and is for villagers who cannot afford either the time or costs to send their children to school. His financial support used to come from the British NGO, Foster Parent Plan, but two years previously they withdrew their support because „they were a Christian organization and the villages were Muslim..44 Pressure also came from the pesantren or Islamic religious school below the village and children
44 Moelyono, interview Tulungagung, 10/05/05.
were withdrawn from Moelyono.s play group because his activities were not related to prayer rituals or Muslim activities. Moelyono.s primary interest concerned the traditional culture of the farmers, which was closer to the land and animist traditions; and he said, “…they didn.t like the villagers praying to the gods of the padi”. At the time of writing Moelyono was providing training without payment for the village mothers so they could continue preschool education themselves, and he himself was to commence a short-term contract for UNICEF in other parts of the archipelago.45 Moelyono.s entire output is another illustration of work and facilities provided by the creative inventiveness of individuals for want of arts infrastructure and government support for programs.
6.1.18: Moelyono, Sanggar Bermain Anak Tani, SBAT, installation, Cemeti Art House, Exploring Vacuum 1, 2003.
45 All information is the result of conversations during a visit to the area, 10th to 11th May, 2005.
1 komentar:
pak mul sekarang dimana, usianya berapa, masa dari brumbun, bekerja sebagai apa? anak berappa ada yang di tanggunggunung ? salam kenal
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