Topp & Dubio, 'Back to Nothing'
The Dutch artist' duo Topp & Dubio traveled three weeks through Indonesia as guest artists invited by several Indonesian art instistutes. Here follows a brief outline of their experiences.
'Popp & Dubio' it says on the placard in the hands of a man on the airport Soekarno-Hatta. This mangling of our name pleases us and takes an advance on the coming three weeks in Indonesia. Here we will discuss the differences and similarities between Poentjak and Puncak. A couple characters make the difference between a place on Java and a restaurant in The Hague. In an inimitable manner the man takes us through the diplomatic gates of the airport into Indonesia. During our first meetings in Jakarta, when we speak about our home town, we address the town in English 'The Hague', but it becomes soon clear that it should be in Dutch 'Den Haag'. The colonial tracks in the language are still present. Also the words KNALPOT, STROOM and ACCU we will encounter many times at the side of the road. And Puncak still knows multiple ways of spelling.
Good for us that we use photography and film. Although we are not certain how well our Dutch photography translates itself in Indonesia.
Cemeti Art House
One of our destinations is Yogyakarta, centre of contemporary art in Indonesia. In Cemeti Art house we have our presentation ‘Terug naar af / Back to nothing’. And here everything is well organized. We arrange the large exposition room with our material. We will show films and projections and present our story about our Poentjak. We are curious to the response of the audience. We have no idea how the irony and humour, which is an inextricable component of our work, will be received by the public. There are also journalists of Indonesian newspapers present who interview us both before and after the presentation. The audience consist from hip, mostly young artists and other ‘urban professionals’. In advance we are warned there will be a lot of rumor during performances here. Particularly on the back rows people lose their attention to art in behalf of mutual social exchange. To be sure we catch everyone’s attention, we made the space somewhat smaller and more intimate by sliding the hindmost banks closer to the projection spot. Most of the people sit on rugs on the ground.
During our presentation we address the public as direct as possible. Many people can follow our English and our words are translated directly to Behasa Indonesia. The atmosphere is good and people have a good laugh, and our final question concerning what the ‘Poentjak’ really is, is well received. We invite everyone to provide the photograph's on our maps with comments which one can directly write with a marker on the maps. This opportunity is well used and a lot of discussion and laughter is going on about our Poentjak.
We speak with several artists and the next couple of days we make visits to the art academy of Yogyakarta (Institut Seni Indonesia), Kedai Kebun Forum (the other contemporary art podium) and we visit Cemeti Art foundation for a meeting with operational manager Aisyah Hilal.
In Jakarta we prepare ourselves for the second workshop at the IKJ. On our request, it will take place at Tom Studio this time. We still like to improvise. That morning we first have a lunch appointment with Maarten Mulder, director of the Erasmushuis and cultural attaché of the Dutch embassy. Besides our journey through Indonesia, we talk about the cooperation between Erasmushuis and IKJ. He speaks about his concerns of the poor organization degree of the institute. We speak about our good experiences of the last two weeks. That afternoon becomes clear what he means. When we arrive at IKJ, only the IKJ part of the course are present, and in Tom Studio only hand-full students appear on time. There are some ten other students who study us curiously when we arrange the studio. They gladly help us to put some panels and chairs in place. Our hosts calls Oktagon continuously to find out what is going on. The largest part of the students appears have exams that day. Also the certificates of participation to the workshop are at Oktagon. After a half hour talk with the present students we decide nevertheless to continue in another, also for us reserved, presentation space with projection equipment and an airco which is already rolling on full speed.There we can discuss the work that the students brought in. To our satisfaction all students have used their own working method. After a while another student, who joined the discussion during the first workshop, arrives with her work. She graduated the day before. Hurray! Later the Indonesian delicacies arrive and we talk about dance, organizing film festivals in Indonesia and the art practice in the Netherlands.
The next day we have an appointment at Ruang Rupa, the most active artist group of Yakarta. We speak with Ade Darwaman about the large differences between the art climate of Yakarta and
Yogyakarta. And about his experiences at the Rijksakademie and the lack of social involvement of artists in the Netherlands. And of course about the differences and similarities between Poentjak and Puncak.
Topp & Dubio, March 2006