Montri Thoensombath's Thai Freedom: (Courtesy of Jakarta Biennale)

For the past several weeks, the Jakarta Biennale has been trying to bring art and culture to the wider public.

Organized by the Jakarta Arts Council under the patronage of Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, the biennale's focus is both inward and outward.

Taking ARENA as an overall theme, the biennale this time evaluates the urban landscape of Jakarta, finding its residents of more than 10 million struggling for a decent quality of life, and in want of places to relax and uplift their mental spirits.

Two parts of the biennale - the zone of comprehension and the battle zone - focus on local spaces and the stirring of the public's sense for art and culture. Workshops, participatory events, including poetry reading, music, theater and street happenings, have been and are still being held, inspiring participants to exhibit their creations made in these events, in public spaces.

In the third part of the biennale, the fluid zone, the biennale looks outward, presenting works relating to Southeast Asia, a clutch of countries born at almost the same time after World War II.

The first exhibition of the Jakarta Biennale 09 that started off in December 2008 under the title "Women's Room", showed pictures made by Indonesian women photographers.

It must be said that the display of this exhibition was below standard, leaving visitors to wonder what happened to its curators (male and reputed at that). The photographs, however, did put an accent on the issues tackled by the Jakarta Biennale, revealing the sense of being alone and alienated in the city where social and political strife and money matters hardly leave a place for human interests.

Workshops on making comics or banners have resulted in numerous posters appearing in public spaces, like at Kota Station, bus stops and elsewhere.

An interesting exhibition at the ground level of Senayan City Mall shows comics commenting on the complicated issues of the city, among which floods and the horrendous traffic jams take a central place. What is particularly interesting is that these comics that are of good quality have been drawn by boys who, for one reason or another, have been in detention.

But underneath the biennale event involving the wider public in the city, in particular the younger generation, an urgent critique shines through to the authorities, the city administration, whose responsibility it is to see that the quality of life of its citizens is up to level in all aspects.

The exhibitions in the fluid zones of the National Gallery and Grand Indonesia Mall are divided into displays of works by Asian contemporary artists who are below 40 years of age, as well as works by artists who are resident in one of the Asian countries (no age limit).

The exhibitions attempt to display a new mapping of Southeast Asian contemporary art practice. In this sense, the biennale puts an emphasis on contemporary cultural practice in the region, which transcends regional, geographical and political boundaries.

The fluid zones comprise two parts, "On the Map" and "Traffic".

"On the Map" showcases works by 14 Indonesian artists in their 30s and 13 artists of the same age from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. Among these are the internationally renowned Eko Nugroho, Kus Widananto (also known as Jompet), Handiwirman Saputra, Tintin Wulia, as well as first-time biennale participants like Videobabes, Sekar Jatiningrum, Paul Kadarisman and others.

From outside Indonesia, there are, among others, Dona Ong and Khairudin Hori (Singapore), Vincent Leong (Malaysia), Montri Toemsombat (Thailand), Jason Banal (Philippines), Hoang Doang Kam (Vietnam) and more.

"Traffic" presents the works of artists resident in one of the Asian countries, including, among others, David Griggs and Victoria Cattoni (Australia), Stani Michiels (Belgium), Sylvain Saily (France), Nadiah Bhamadhaj and Sherman Ong (Malaysia), Sara Nuytemans (Netherlands), Phil Collins (UK), Adri* Juli* (Spain); Uschi Huber (Germany) and Takuro Kotaka (Japan).

Curated by Indonesia's Agung Hujatnikajennong, the exhibitions bring together the most exciting works of young and emerging artists in the region, with some taking their inspiration from colonial rule or political situation, and others from personal experiences, while almost all have made use of technical advances of the present time.

The selection of artists has also benefited from recommendations by such curators and art critics as Joselina Cruz, Adeline Ooi, Luckana and Sutte Kunavichhayanont, Mervin Espina, Zoe Buttam June Yap, Eugene Tana, David Teh and Che Kyongfa.

A catalog will be published as after the event, with essays by among others, Dr. Thomas Berghuis - a Netherlands-born curator, critic and fine art lecturer who now resides in Australia, who will give an analysis of artists' mobility in Southeast Asia; and Prof. Patrick D. Flores, a curator, critic and arts lecturer from the Philippines, who will review the history of contemporary art in Southeast Asia.

Others include Enin Supriyanto, a curator and critic from Indonesia who will give a review of the latest development of art infrastructure in Southeast Asia; and Agung Hujatnikajennong, curator of the Jakarta Biennale Fluid Zones 09 who will elaborate on the curatorial theme of the Jakarta Biennale '09 and the works in the exhibition.

On Feb. 8, there will be an artists' talk at the National Gallery, while on Feb. 10 a seminar will be held on Southeast Asian contemporary art, with speakers to include Thomas Berghuis, Patrick Flores and Nuraini Juliasturi.

THE JAKARTA BIENNALE

Organized by the Jakarta Arts Council

phone: +62-21 319 37639, 3162780, 39899634, or Iwan +62 8159213952

email: Jakarta.biennale.09@dkj.or.id

url: www.jakartabiennale09.com

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia