This is one of the first few articles I translated for the Visual Arts Magazine. This article is written by Kunang Helmi for Visual Arts, 9 December 2005
Amidst the varied activities of the ‘rentree’ —the month after the holidays end and when autumn begins here in France—Indonesia made a big splash on the artistic scene.
Strategically, the two shows featuring the twelve Indonesians was held coincided with the FIAC art fair held on the weekend of 8/9th October. Buyers and collectors were thus alerted to a new source of inspiration, a welcome change from conventional tourism tactics.
In the presence of renowned Indonesian artists Astari Rasjid and Pintor Sirait at the openings the shows—also featuring their colleagues, Agus Suwage, Yusra Martunus, Yunizar, Alfi, Eddy Hara, Agung Kurniawan, Ugo Untoro, Bambang Toko Wudarsono, FW Harsono and Masryadi—opened the eyes of sophisticated European art connoisseurs to what was happening in the Indonesian contemporary art scene.
Discovered by Jean-Marc Decrop who lives between Paris and Hong Kong, he and his associate Jean-Francois Roudillon decided to give the ten artists a boost in Paris.
Jean-Marc Decrop, who used to deal with old and contemporary European masters, has branched out six years ago with Chinese contemporary art, hitherto unknown in the west, but now much sought after. Traveling between Hong Kong and Paris, he was well equipped to deal with the subject. Recently Decrop staged a successful joint Chinese – Indonesian contemporary art show in Jakarta, called “On the Edge” at The Pakubuwono Residence from 15 to 23 May 2004. Together, he and Roudillon run Galerie Loft in Paris and in Barcelona. Thanks to his flair, Indonesian artists will profit from welcome and over-due exposure on the international market.
Decrop said, “It is important to follow one’s intuition and not be impressed by the fashion. Had I not heeded my feeling that contemporary Chinese, and then Indonesian, art was crucial, nobody here would have dared to start showing the new trends in Asia.”
Decrop and Roudillon organized not only one, but two exhibitions in Paris: one at Galerie Loft on the Rue des Beaux Arts on the Left Bank and the other at the huge entrance hall of Assurances & Conseils Saint-Honore (associated with Rotschild Banque) located on swanky Avenue Matignon on the Right Bank near Christie’s. Works by Rasjid, Sirait and Agus Suwage, which Decrop and Roudillon already bought last year, dominates the entrance of the Galerie Loft on the Left Bank.
Astari Rasjid, Pintor Sirait, Agus Suwage, Yusra Martunus, Yunizar, Alfi, Eddy Hara, Agung Kurniawan, Ugo Untoro, Bambang Toko Wudarsono, FX Harsono and Masryadi are thus ambassadors of contemporary Indonesian artistic expression. While Pintor remains the only sculptor among this group, the others explore various facets of painting techniques.
Astari Rasjid stands out not only because she is a woman, but also because she seems determined to deliver a semi-political message, as well as being likened in Europe to her Mexican predecessor, Frida Kahlo, who also preferred self-portraits of various kinds. However, Rasjid spans a wide social scale between being an Indonesian ‘socialite’ of sorts, an artist and a mother.
Astari Rasjid and Pintor Sirait were the only ones able to attend the opening in Paris. They were invited to stay at a friend’s flat overlooking the lovely gardens of Palais Royal opposite the Louvre for two weeks, soak in the atmosphere for inspiration, to be able to begin new projects.
Indonesian Jais Darga and her French husband Pascal Lansberg who jointly own a gallery in the neighboring Rue de Seine also attended the openings celebrated with flowing champagne. They had just flown back from Bali where the Darga gallery had featured Basquiat in a popular exhibition and they soon bought a sculpture by Sirait.
One anonymous collector, who also owns many casinos and is an elegant figure, loves sculptures, so that Pintor may have sold other pieces on opening night last 30 September. The deal was not yet concluded, but interest in paintings was also high. The fact that Indonesia is now firmly placed on the artistic atlas is of extreme importance for their commercial value.
According to Decrop, Indonesian contemporary art concerns burning issues such as transformation of traditional societies and the modernization process, the explosion of consumerism and business, internet, burgeoning urbanism and ecological disasters, the ‘new rich’ and issues concerning the position of women in traditional Muslim society are themes treated without shame in these artists’ work. Even nudity is no longer a taboo subject.
The twelve have been invited to the Biennales in Venice, Kwangju, Jakarta, Shanghai and Tirana. Sotheby’s and Christie’s in Hong Kong and Singapore, not forgetting Larasati auction house, have auctioned their work. It was high time that the French public was introduced to their dynamic and thought-provoking ‘oeuvre’.
Of the twelve, perhaps Astari Rasjid and Pintor Sirait are the most cosmopolitan as they have been mostly educated abroad and share certain similarities in their theoretical approach to art. Javanese Rasjid grew up partly in India and Burma, while Batak Sirait was born in Germany and was educated in the United States and Germany before returning to Bandung. Rasjid went to school at the University of Minnesota and took a painting course at the Royal College of Art in London where her penchant for gender issues was fortified. Sirait now mainly works with metal, in pieces of varying sizes. His current big work in progress is a 50-meter long sculpture commissioned by Changi airport.
The twelve are thus clearly on the way to a global audience, while in Indonesia, their work have been considered pivotal for the younger generation who consider art as their possible future profession. While firmly anchored in Indonesian culture, they all explore the limits of traditional artistic expressions, extended on a larger global canvas. Gone are the days when over-stepping traditional cultural expression was considered non-Indonesian, or non-Asian, and frowned upon by the so-called New Order. Although being able to make a living from art is still fraught with existential hazards, these artists have the courage to affront the dangers and continue producing valid art forms.
