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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">Education, an installation by Oscar Lawalata, 2011, wooden chairs, textiles from East Nusa Tenggara.Spring in France is like earth’s rebirth, a coming to life again with new energy and fresh beginnings.

This feeling permeates the exhibition Dysfashional #6, held as part of the French Cultural Center’s (CCF) “Printemps Francais”. A collaborative project between the CCF, the Goethe Institut and the National Gallery here, the show involves eight European and seven Indonesian artists/designers.

Just like that delightful feeling when spring arrives in Europe, the sense of renewal in the “Dysfashional” show in Jakarta appears to have been an energizing experience for the participating Indonesian artists and designers, as it was for visitors to the show, and not in the least for the curators for whom Jakarta is the first stop after five earlier shows in five European cities.

Curator Luca Marshetti says it was a surprise for him to find young Indonesian artists making works of such high quality and perfection. “In Europe, young artists are usually good in the conceptual but they lack quality in production.”

The exhibition is visually dominated by the works of Indonesian artists and designers, with the installation Boxes, made by photographer-cum-stage designer Jay Subiakto and fashion designer Stella Rissa, as the stand-out piece.

Measuring 2.5x2.5x2 meters, the work features one big box comprising four openings, each leading to another box or “Passion Room” where a video is presented, each with a theme of its own.

Highlighting passions of the female, the masculine, the androgyny, and the animal, all represented within every person, some more or less affecting a person’s character, preferences and identity, the videos offer fantasies that hinge between the realistic and the imagined. But if you don’t get to see all the videos, the exterior of the box alone is exciting enough.

Made of ceramics in metal appearance of capillary “embossed” tiles, it gives a fascinating albeit distorted mirrored effect of our image as we look on.

Meanwhile, as our hands glide over the “cobbled” surface, a sensual sensation takes hold of our bodies, the experience sustained by the sounds coming from inside the boxes.

Another impressive work is the installation Dita Gambiro, titled Safety first. Finely executed traditional Javanese hairpieces combined with accessories, they embody our concern with the negative influence from abroad.

Another work by the same artist also engages in women’s dilemmatic situation here. Mbak Yu (meaning elder sister, but could cynically also be interpreted as Madam) is a wall installation of household tools like brooms made of synthetic hair, rattan and wood that also speaks of traditional impositions on women. Even if women are professionally equal to their male colleagues, they still have to be responsible for the household.

Ruang rupa, an artist collective that recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, uses T-shirts as a medium of communication. The artists’ installation of T-shirts shows an avalanche of messages and statements indicative of critical issues in society during certain periods of time.

The writing on one T-shirt reads: “Are you really what you wear, or is what you wear today not important anymore?”

Quite a disturbing question for those following fashion trends from one season to the other.

It is interesting to see Oscar Lawalata’s Education class which reminds me of the History Class installation by the Thai conceptual artist Sutee Kunavichayanont currently on show at SAM, Singapore.

But different from revolutionary notes scratched on the desks that refer to political situations in Thai history, Oscar’s textile covering his school chairs refer to the cultural history of East Nusa Tenggara’s
rich ikat.

Safety First, by Dita Gambiro, 2007, synthetic hair, helmet and accessories.The images woven into the textile tell the story of people’s beliefs, myths and legends that soon will be extinct.

The curators revealed that “Dysfashional” in five cities of Europe was not so much of an adventure
to them.

“Even if each art work brought new expectation of what would come out, there is a common aesthetic based on common grounds”. But Jakarta is different.

“Here it is an exploration with exciting discoveries, and totally new from the conceptual so typical for Europe”.

Wary of fashion, Dysfashional invited designers and artists to reveal their inner world of imagination and experimentation, ultimately highlighting the cultural that nurtures the artistic in their creations.

If European works generally focus on the conceptual thought, and the Indonesian works gain from the intrinsic value-added artisanal skills, Dysfashional #6 will be a bridge for future cooperation.