JAKARTA BIENNALE 2021: ESOK (TOMORROW) Part 1
By: B.T.
February 10th, 2022
At exactly 13:27, I arrived at the lobby of the National Museum. Welcomed by the sculpture “Multicolor Phoenix Rising” by Sri Astari, my colleague and I then descended to the basement of the National Museum, where we had to re-register to attend the first series of Jakarta Biennale at the National Museum. The first series is divided into two floors – the lower and upper floors. As visitors, we were free to view the works displayed on the lower floor, while for the upper floor, which utilized part of the space adjacent to the National Museum, we were asked by registration officers to purchase a museum admission ticket. At a price of only Rp. 5,000, it is certainly affordable for all groups, and hopefully, in the future, it can reach people who have never experienced coming to a museum and appreciating art.
After obtaining our museum tickets, we returned to the ground floor to go to the Jakarta Biennale lobby. From afar, Tom Tandio waved at us and signaled us to hurry to catch up with Irfanda and the group of visitors for the tour of the upper floor. Apparently, this tour was a bonus tour that was not on the agenda we received earlier, a pleasant surprise. The tour was directly guided by South Korean artist, Che Onejoon, whose works were also exhibited on the upper floor. He is an ultra-contemporary artist who describes himself as a visual artist and filmmaker. His works displayed at the Jakarta Biennale are his latest project that captures highlife music from Africa, Afro-Asian connections, and his international friendship. From Che Onejoon’s work, we went around to see works from other artists; Khairani Barokka from London with her installation work entitled “Sehat-sehat”, Alfiah Rahdini from Bandung who showcased fiberglass sculpture work manipulated to look like a statue inscription she named “Sri Naura Paramita”, Nadiah Bamadhaj from Yogyakarta with her installation work entitled “Casting Spells for the Movement” which is a resin statue depicting an ancient woman with a bun holding a tray as if giving an offering juxtaposed on her left side with a mute video depicting a group of modern women walking simultaneously, pushing each other forward through three continuously running video channels, and finally on this upper floor is an audio installation work by Song Ta from Guangzhou that was installed on a series of 3 pairs of monitor speakers on a red carpeted stage arranged in such a way with a large Chinese flag hanging down from the ceiling towards the stage.
After the tour on the upper floor was completed, we headed down to the lower floor where two large installation works were displayed. We went to the artwork exhibited at the back first, which belonged to Kenji Makizono, a Japanese artist who presented installation and performance art. Kenji tried to recount his experience in a project of forming an indie music group in a district of Seoul called Hongdae. Hongdae was a district that was famous in the early 90s for its young people and indie music scene. However, everything changed when urbanization spread to the district, land prices skyrocketed, and local businesses were replaced by well-known big capital brands that transformed Hongdae into a mini Tokyo. Thus, local musicians’ efforts were born against commercialization to protect their places to play music, hold music festivals, and perform on the streets with makeshift equipment (sometimes carrying their amplifiers on shopping carts) to show their resistance to a culture that leans towards corporations, which has become the mainstream of culture in Hongdae. The brochures they paste on walls and electric poles are often hit by real estate promotional brochures, indicating conflicts over influence in the city. These backgrounds form Kenji’s work as a resistance of the marginalized, depressed in its spirit.
As we were still contemplating Kenji’s work, Irfanda called out to us because it was already 2:40 pm and the opening ceremony at Stovia was about to start at 3:00 pm. Before leaving the National Museum, we took a moment to stand in front of a bright yellow screen with an introduction from Dolorosa Sinaga, the Artistic Director of the Jakarta Biennale. Her introduction expressed the unease over the New Order regime that repressed and released art from its ethical commitment to respond to social and political realities. She emphasized that discussing ethics is entirely about discussing human rights. However, today, in the reform era, although some things are no longer so repressive, the legacy still exists, and the rest remains the same, if not worse. The mass apathy that has occurred since the Soeharto era is now even more widespread, and the legacy of the New Order is still felt and packaged in new wrappings. Quoting Dolorosa, “Therefore, human rights and all their problems are the foundation of the Jakarta Biennale 2021 exhibition for a more humane TOMORROW!”