The Indonesian art market is booming again. Unlike the boom in the 1980s, which was limited, the market in this decade is growing all the time. The art network has also expanded, taking into account the presence of a number of local auction houses and those across Asia, which are becoming more aggressive.

No wonder there are more players in the market. In a new trend, a number of art fairs have been held in various places from Singapore to Hong Kong and Beijing, with Indonesian art galleries taking part in the events.

The boom of today's art market is triggered by this configuration. Besides which, we need to consider the mushrooming of new galleries in the country. What's more, there are also foreign galleries that are interested in the works of Indonesian artists. New artists emerge and in just a short time their works are absorbed by the market.

The boom actually began in 2006, followed by the rocketing price of paintings created by two Indonesian artists, which reached billions of rupiah in an action house a year later. The market players in the country made the best of this momentum. This also increased the prices of paintings made by other artists. New enthusiasm in the Asian art trade became apparent with Indonesia representing the boom in Southeast Asia. While some might still be in doubt, others were certain about this enthusiasm. And early this year, the market finally started to grow.

One thing that we need to bear in mind is that there is no parameter within such a situation. Not from the world of education, curators, art scholars or art critics. The market crowd is the one that determines the parameter, and its taste could change in seconds. Yet, in this case, auction houses and art fairs quietly become the parameter among our art players.

Auction houses are like a stock exchange market with a lot of surprises and sensation (I was told that the heart of some artists always beat harder in every auction, waiting for the banging of the gavel to find out the price their paintings fetch). Auctions are absurd. Mediocre works can fetch a rocketing price. While artworks that are taken into account and have historical value are drowned. Art fairs in Asia recently have attracted Indonesian galleries and, of course, several market players.

CIGE-China International Gallery Exposition is an annual art fair that has been held since 2004 in Beijing. Since its establishment, the CIGE has been eyed as a prestigious market for galleries around the world and at the same time a place to sell contemporary artworks. But please do not compare it right away with an art fair like a night market or a trade fair. CIGE maintains its image in such a way, which is sophisticated, so that the art fair does not have the image of a market place. One of their efforts involves coming up with a suitable theme.

For example, in the CIGE-2008, which involved five Indonesian galleries, the organizer picked the theme "Energizing the Art World" and other smaller themes that sound serious and smart like "Mapping Asia" and "Alternative Energy". In addition, each gallery was allowed to exhibit their paintings with curation, meaning that they were handled by a curator. As far as I know, three Indonesian galleries: Galeri Canna, Langgeng and Nadi each hired a curator -- a working mechanism which, I think, is too much. I am not sure if Vanessa Art and Galeri Linda had their own curators. With booths of various sizes and quite high costs, each gallery put the works of their "blue chip" artists on display. In general, each gallery set higher prices for paintings than in the country. Because it was in U.S. dollars and the gallery claimed to have spent a lot of money to join such an art fair.

The prices were considered reasonable in the mind of the gallery owner, especially if the art fair context was taken into consideration. But actually it could be said that from a certain point of view the high price tag of Indonesian paintings in CIGE was abnormal. The painting of young artist J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra cost hundreds of millions rupiah there, a fantastic price for such a young man with so little exhibition experience. Not to mention the prices of works by painters like Handiwirman, Budi Swiss and Eko Nugroho. Amazingly, almost all works by Indonesian artists were sold out in this art fair.

Rumors had it that the buyers were Indonesians who flew to Beijing to visit CIGE-2008. They said that it was difficult to find the painting of Mr. so-and-so in Jakarta. That's why they were forced to go hunting as far as Beijing. If that is true, how ridiculous. But it is a fact that many Indonesian collectors attended the event. Compared to the previous years, the number of Indonesian visitors was the highest.

This year's CIGE involved 80 galleries from 22 countries, selected from 300 applicants. Confidently, CIGE claimed that they were "the most established art fair in Asia". Is that true? I don't know even, though I don't have to believe it. But it is true that in general, many people believe that China could be one of the world art centers. Physically this is obvious as reflected in the great number of new locations built for arts facilities.

Beyond that, a problem lingers regarding the democratic climate in China with pointless censorship as an impact. The painting of Sutjipto Adi, which was to have been displayed by Galeri Canna, was banned by the organizer. The large work depicting a crowd of Buddhist monks was considered sensitive by the organizer considering the recent feud between China and Tibet. Besides, Mangu Putra's painting of a Buddhist monk should also be kept in the stock room. It was said that the organizer implemented such censorship with regards to the potency of political infiltration in the art fair. We heard the conflict in the past few months ahead of the opening of the 2008 Olympiad in Beijing.

Personally, I regret the censorship. And I regret it more if such an art fair is used as a vehicle to manipulate the career of an artist by putting a high price tag without any reason, transforming something worthless into something priceless. Let alone building the understanding among Indonesian market players that an art fair is more important than the efforts to involve our artists in more prestigious forums. It is important to join not only a trade forum, but a forum that could shape the mind and test the existence of our arts in the world. Other than this, the art fair, there are still many forums Indonesia must be able to penetrate in the future.

Website: www.cige-bj.com

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