|
| BaliBagus.com's News
covers many topics including Bali travel news, articles, folklore,
and free greetings card. You can also share your travel experience
with other visitors or post any comments, suggestions, and ideas
in our travel forum. But wait, you can also tell your friends about
Bali by using our free tell friend facility. So many things to explore
from our website. Enjoy! |
| BaliBagus.com Bali Hotels & Villas Reservation > Bali Travel News |
Do We Need A Biennale?
2005-08-20
[The Echo Magazine]
 There is a countdown on until the Bali Biennale. Commencing on 15th August 2005, several pre-summit events have been arranged simultaneously around Java and Bali in the cities of Bandung, Jakarta, Jogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Malang, and of course in Denpasar. The theme of the first Bali Biennale is 'Space and Scape'.
Hartanto, an art net-worker and committee member of the Bali Biennale bravely reveals that since 1930 to present date, there has never been a single art event as big as the Bali Biennale. There has never been an event so ambitiously and specially arranged for the development of art in Bali. Balinese art is basically a community-based venture.
Actually Bali is a wealth of talented artists, there is absolutely no ever doubt about it. Artists such as Nyoman Erawan, Jirna, Suklu, Budiana, Mangu Putra, Chusin or Frans Najira, as well as some young generation artists, have more than adequate ability to enter the international art scene. However, they do not see international audiences as their main focus, and have instead chosen to concentrate on the Indonesian art scene; they really haven't made any special efforts to promote their arts works on an international level.
But the younger generation, like the Taxu community, has seemingly made a joint effort to build national and international art networks.
Indeed, there are local works of arts that have attracted recognition from the international art scene, but this merely comes from individual effort, which is an irregularity under Bali's heavily community-based art scene. An individual artist like Made Wianta, for instance, was invited to the Venice Biennale 2003. Other younger artists have also won special recognition; Made Mahendra Toris won a prize in the Beppu Biennale Japan, Ngakan Made Ardana and Wayan Suja were finalists of the 2005 Sovereign Asian Art Prize in Hong Kong this year. Also this year, Titin Wulia, a young videographer artist was been invited to the Australia Biennale.
Beside the artistic talents and traditional support, there is another aspect overshadowing the development of art in Bali, that is, tourism. As history shows, there is a strong, powerful, mainstream tourism industry in Bali that penetrates every aspect of life on the island. Art in Bali is also heavily influenced by the development of tourism.
Bali has been taken as a 'market brand'; the brand has been extensively promoted with the strong sense of exotic colour. Yet the powerful tourism industry image is not always beneficial for the image of art in Bali. Many Balinese artists are seen as submissive to the industry. The promotion has become a burden for artistic talents, for exoticism is the language of the tourism market. Balinese artists are seen as "artists of the market" or "exotic artists". For the community of academic artists, the meaning of this image is: 'ignorance'. For them, any artist, who only serves the exotic market, is considered one who creates beauty without using his/her brain.
A Challenge
Five years ago, a young Balinese intellectual Putu Wirata, and some of his friends, saw the importance of an international event to support Balinese artists on a global scale. The only choice was to hold a biennale.
There were two aims that Putu wanted to achieve: to eradicate the image of Balinese art as touristy. In his opinion, this image has been a burden on the Balinese artists for more than seven decades. By staging a biennale, Balinese artists would be motivated to enter into the competition of artistic sense and intellectual ideas on an international level. He admits that, to some extent, there are some Balinese artists who are busily absorbed by market considerations. His hidden mission is to give thought to the Bali-based art-business people, particularly in Ubud, that the market of exotic art will be defeated by the current trend, that is, the art of discourse, the art of intellectual sense.
However as attractive as his idea was, Putu Wirata and friends didn't have enough support from the Bali art community or the local government. Last year however, after four years of waiting, an automotive company, Astra Otoparts, pledged interest in supporting a major art event in Bali.
Is Bali ready for a biennale? "Something had to be done," Putu Wirata insists. "It is just like the proclamation of independence. Many people said Indonesia wasn't ready to run as an independent state, but the founding fathers said that we could do it and we did."
In Wirata's understanding, the art society in Bali is ready and the public is ready. "The only thing we need is a special character for this biennale, and we will attempt to build the character with a theme and a sub-theme this year." He also revealed the importance of the support from a national company such as Astra Autoparts.
Made Budiana, a senior artist in Denpasar, reveals a different opinion, "We should have organized ourselves in advanced with a well curated exhibition every year to prepare Bali." Budiana says as he believes that the infrastructure of the Balinese art community is not ready for a big event like a biennale. The collectors, the art-dealers, the curators, everything is not ready. Mass media including most of their journalists and editors are not ready. For example, artists who fight with idealism will not be appreciated in the mass media; they mostly promote marketable art and artists. "This is not fair at all," says Budiana. "I believe however, there are still good journalists who understand art, but are without column, or power."
Frankly speaking, I enjoy any discussion about art, especially if both sides have a strong argument. Yet the arguments of the pros and cons of the Bali Biennale are basically aimed towards the same direction: to create a better development of art in Bali.
The good thing about the first Bali Biennale is that the event is creating discussion and debate, about Balinese art. This island is no longer an exotic artistic island and there is plenty of intellectual debate amongst the artists. Hopefully it is fruitful.
|
|
|
|
|
|
