Wednesday, November 19, 2008

3 Zones of ARENA & Programs



[Understanding] Zone


JB 09 will begin by re-introducing what ARENA actually means; opened with a set of exhibitions and simple activities to raise the people’s awareness about what is going on in the society. This is because the society themselves often do not realize that their rights have been taken away—which can be in the form of personal views that are disturbed by the billboards on streets, or unasked-for advertisement messages on our mobile phones.

Public playgrounds, with the encircling iron fences for cleanliness reasons, turn into empty grounds, which are then considered to have no practical functions and finally demolished as the managers consider them to be a burden. Shopping centers, equipped with children’s amusement parks, were originally meant to facilitate the public to fulfill their household needs, but they have turned into consumptive areas, dominating family’s lives with financial demands.

The forms of exhibition in this phase are “one-sided”, presenting relatively classic murals, talk shows, and the likes. These series of early activities will try to raise our awareness about current issues.


Programs of [UNDERSTANDING ZONE]

I. Events with other organizations


1. Jiffest – Southeast Asian Short Film Section

Screening films on tensions between religiosity/spiritual beliefs and urban society life in Southeast Asia.

Programmer
: Varadila and Agung Hujatnikajennong

Participants
: 15 young film-makers from Southeast Asia (under 35 years old)

Venue
: Kineforum,
Taman Ismail Marzuki, 21 Cineplex, Studio 1,
Jl. Cikini Raya 73, Jakarta Pusat

Date
: 5 – 9 December 2008


2. Pesta Sastra Jakarta (Jakarta Literary Festival)
‘Sastra di Ruang Kota’ (Literature in City’s space)
Placing literary works that relate to city’s space or memories in the form of public-art media (stickers, graffiti, posters, etc.)
The placing/distribution of these public art works will depend on the contents or messages of related works.
Hopefully this activity can help introduce literary works and ideas/memory about the city space to a wider public so that these works and ideas can he better appreciated in other forms.
Participants
: Literary persons and public space artists

Venue
: Taman Menteng,
Jl. Hos Cokroaminoto, Menteng, Jakarta

Date
: 10 January 2009


3. Festival Teater Jakarta (Jakarta Theatre Festival)
‘Teater Multimedia’ (‘Multimedia Theatre’).
Discussion
:
A discussion about the collaboration between multimedia and theatres, which one often encounters in many performances
Venue : Taman Ismail Marzuki,
Jl. Cikini Raya 73, Jakarta Pusat
Date
: 19 – 30 December 2008.

Performance by
: Studio Teater Indonesia & Teater Syahid

Venue
: Teater Kecil, Taman Ismail Marzuki
,
Jl. Cikini Raya 73, Jakarta Pusat

Date
: 19 – 30 December 2008.


4. Gelar Koreografi Kota/GKK (City’s Choreography Festival)
GKK will be an annual program. Beginning in 2008, this event consists of performances by 4 choreographers (the creation process of each artist will be supported by a team that gives input on the musical, fine arts, and choreography aspects, containing urban themes) and Street Dance Competition for public. The venue is to be decided later (indoor/outdoor), but will use the lanes used in Jakarta Biennale ‘09.
Kencan Tari (Dance Workshop)

Kencan Tari comprises workshop the role of drama in choreography, as an approach to interfere in to the choreography. There will be 8 to 18 choreographers that will be introduced by this approach.
These choreographers will work based on the theme ‘urban’. Their proposal will be selected. The selected dance will perform in “The City Choreography Show” on February 2009.
Date
: 24 – 30 November 2009

Instructor
: Tang Fu Kuen (Singapore)

Target of participant
: Invitation (participants of Kencan Tari 2007)


II. Fringe Events


Photo Exhibition
A photo exhibition on problems in modern city space of Southeast Asia and its connection with the community’s daily lives.

a. Mapping Invisible Cities II

Curator
: Farah Wardani

Artists
: 29 photographers from Southeast Asia

Venue
: Goethe Institut Jakarta,
Jl. Sam Ratulangi 9-15, Jakarta

Date
: 9 – 27 February 2009


b. Ruang Perempuan (Women’s Room)

Curator
: Oscar Motuloh

Artists
: 8 young Indonesian women photographers

[Part. 1]
Venue
:
Taman Ismail Marzuki,
Jl. Cikini Raya 73, Jakarta Pusat
Date
: 2 – 7 December 2008
[Part. 2]

Venue
: Oktagon - Gallery,
Jl. Gunung Sahari No. 50A Jakarta Pusat

Date
: 9 December 2008 – 9 January 2009

13 December 2008, 14:00 WIB (Discussion 'Woman & Photography')
9 January 2009, 18:00 WIB (Artist Talk)

Children interaction in mall

a. Comics and Picture Exhibition from Juvenile Offenders from the Tangerang Detention Centre
Exhibition of comics and pictures from children about their dreams, imaginations, and views on the ideal city space.

Venue
: Promenade Senayan City,
Jln. Asia Africa Lot. 19, Jakarta
Date : 1 – 7 February 2009.

b. Comics Workshop for Juvenile Offenders
Venue
: Tangerang Detention Centre,
Jl. Daan Mogot No. 29C, Tangerang

Date
: 20 – 27 November 2008.

Venue
:
Taman Ismail Marzuki,
Jl. Cikini Raya 73, Jakarta Pusat
Ruang Rupa,
Jl. Tebet Barat Dalam I No. 26, Jakarta




[Battle] Zone

This program consists of a series of workshops and exhibitions that involve many cross-discipline practitioners to review the context of the contemporary spaces in Jakarta and to create new spaces for the public. This entails not only new spaces in its physical term, but also spaces for ideas that relate to many things which might affect the city’s development, such as the technology, economy, politics, history, and the public. The documentation of the project and workshop’s artifacts (outdoor billboards and on-site specific projects) will be displayed in the Fluid Zone section.

This zone focuses on the creation of spaces that facilitate and mediate new ideas in physical and mental terms, to create encounters and public spaces, so that the art, artists, and the public can interact and appreciate one another.

Artworks existing in a certain public space with the special characteristic of the site—spatially, socially, historically, publicly, and politically—become the most important elements. Works in the public space interact directly with unselected audiences: the audience can interact with the works and appreciate them without any distance. The public turns into active participants, becoming neither distant nor passive.

The society as the art public, which naturally should be the most important focus here, has inadequate access to enjoy and appreciate art. The lack of information and publication about art has made art activities or art discourses fail to become a far-reaching discourse in the society. Therefore, it makes sense to say that there is a need to have a structure in which the society does not only become the “target” of art, but, more importantly, they can be the subject of art. Also, there is the need of a new structure in which the public can engage with art, directly and indirectly, and become the subject of the art process.

Art activities that are based on problems in the community and urban milieu in Jakarta become an important thing to be used as a starting point to create a new art public that have never been touched by art before—for example the students, youth, workers, and the society in general. More popular avenues should also be used, for example by employing youth-segmented radio and internet. By maintaining and developing the new public, hopefully art can be better appreciated and become a far-reaching cultural discourse.

Art and technology and their relation and impact in society will be the focus of discussion in all activities. We bring out this focus of discussion because the development of technology in these years has been affecting our point of view in seeing “the reality”. Audio-visual media offers us new realities and “truth” that are increasingly more attractive and impressive. Furthermore, this leads to a new reality that can change the social condition. Other themes that we will present are: the phenomenon of community radio and television, the development of computers and games technology, and the virtual reality.

Series of exhibition, the workshop emphasizes on the effort to create new creativity rooms, by artists, community, or collaboration of both, in which the artists play the role as the guides that control the media.


Programs of [BATTLE ZONE]

Outdoor Urban Billboard Workshop
A workshop on creating art works in the public space, in the form of billboards and presented in ten advertisement boards on the main streets of Jakarta. Ten artists and designers would be involved in this workshop, under the guidance of Irwan Ahmett, a graphic artist and designer who has produced many works in public spaces.
Conducted by : Irwan Ahmett
Theme (optional, working theme): “Jakarta urban society” or “What is art, today?”

Workshop

Venue : Ruangrupa,
Jl. Tebet Timur Dalam Raya No. 6, Jakarta 12820
Date : 10 – 28 November 2008 (4 classes)
Execution : 5 – 14 December 2008

Project

Date : 15 December 2008 – 8 March 2009.
Venue : Blok M bus terminal, Pancoran Fly Over, Jatinegara, Kelapa Gading Boulevard, Mangga Dua,Gunung Sahari, Kota, Fly Over Kuningan, Fly Over Sudirman – Thamerin, Dukuh Atas, Manggarai Terminal, Gatot Subroto, Plaza Senayan.


On-Site-Specific Projects (Redefining Space and Memories)
A workshop on art work creation in public spaces in the form of on-site specific works, interactive, photography, works with public media which will be presented on public spaces in Jakarta.
Conducted by : Ardi Yunanto
Participants : 14 persons (artists, historian, architects, street artists)
Theme : Redefining space and memories
Workshop Venue : Taman Ismail Marzuki,
Jl. Cikini Raya 73, Jakarta Pusat
Date : 10 – 28 November 2008 (8 classes)
Execution : 5 – 14 December 2008
Exhibition : 15 December 2008 – 8 March 2009
Project Venue : abandoned buildings, train stations, museums, parks, traffic lights, and houses of worship.


Jakarta 32°Showcase Program
Exhibition of students’ and young artists’ works of art who have been presented in the Jakarta 32° biennales (2004, 2006, 2008), organized by 'ruangrupa', in the form of presentation in public spaces.
Project Venue : Atrium Senayan City,
Jln. Asia Africa Lot. 19, Jakarta
Date : 1 – 7 February 2009



[Fluid] Zone
International Fine Art Exhibition

Started from the town, to the district, and the country. Should the two previous stages focused on works regarding town, this stage would be wider.

At a glance one will realize that the title ‘ARENA’ contains many possibilities of clashes, even conflicts, which can lead to a deadly battlefield if we don’t handle it well. Of course nobody expects such things to happen.

In this phase, our curator Agung Hujatnikajennong tells us again that actually the overlapping processes in various cultures and interests have taken place since a long time ago in the city, country, and geopolitical area where we live, especially after the concepts of “nation-state” and modern cities were applied by post-colonial society. The word ‘Fluid’, which has the negative meaning of being weak when one culture occupies another, yet it positively has the meaning of having the ability to absorb various culture that form a synthesize culture at each country in this region.

In the current time frame, the curator presents two approaches in the theme of the Fluid Zone. This exhibition consists of two sections, i.e. Traffic and On the Map. “On the Map” section will present Southeast Asian young artists whose reputations have been nationally and internationally acknowledged. This section will exhibit art works that represent contemporary problems that the Southeast Asia communities face nowadays, particularly the problems of cities, identities, geopolitical area, and room to maneuver.

The “Traffic” section will present international artists who had been resident artists or visiting artists to the Southeast Asian countries, whose works represent specific viewpoints on the Southeast Asian cultures and societies. This exhibition, basically, wants to invite us to think critically and creatively, and furthermore serves as a warning and perhaps provides answers to existing problems.


Curator : Agung Hujatnikajennong

Programs of [FLUID ZONE]

Opening Ceremony
Venue : Nasional Museum,
Jl. Merdeka Barat No. 12, Jakarta Pusat
Date : Friday, 6 February 2009
Host : Governor of DKI Jakarta


Artist Gathering
Venue : National Gallery,
Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur No. 14, Jakarta
Date : Friday, 6 February 2009
Guest stars : Yason Banal (The Philippines), Goodnight Electric (Jakarta)


Seminar
Venue : National Gallery,
Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur No. 14, Jakarta
Date : Friday, 13 February 2009
Speakers : Dr. Thomas Berghuis (Australia), Prof. Patrick D. Flores (Philippine), Nuraini Juliastuti (Indonesia)
Moderator : Enin Supriyanto (Jakarta)


Artist Talk I
Venue : National Gallery
Date : Sunday, 8 February 2009
Artists : Phil Collins (UK), Video Babes (Indonesia), Khairuddin Hori (Singapore), Donna Ong (Singapore)

Artist Talk II
Venue :
(Jompet & David Griggs)
Institut Kesenian Jakarta,
Jl. Cikini Raya No. 73 Komp. Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta
(Irwan Ahmett & Sherman Ong)
Universitas Tarumanegara,
Jl. Letjen S. Parman No.1, Jakarta
(Yason Banal & Eko Nugroho)
Universitas Indonesia - Fakultas Ilmu Bahasa,
Kampus Universitas Indonesia, Depok

Date : Monday, 9 February 2009

Press Conference
Venue : National Gallery,
Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur No. 14, Jakarta
Date : Thursday, 29 January 2009

Kids & Youth Workshop I
This workshop involves junior and high school students, inviting them to make kinetic art objects from recycled electronic devices/components.
Target of participants : SMP & SMU students
Artist : Jompet (Yogyakarta)
Venue : National Gallery
Date : Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Duration : 1 day (2 groups/2 sessions)

Kids & Youth Workshop II: Comics
This workshop will involve SMP & SMU students to make comics.
Target of participants : SMP & SMU students
Artist : Eko Nugroho (Yogyakarta)
Venue : National Gallery
Date : 24 February 2009
Duration : 1 day (2 groups /2 sessions)

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