Ruangrupa. Alternative Space and Culture Analysis
Interview with Ade Darmawan, conducted by Hendro Wiyanto, An Outline. October 2005.
Source: universe-in-universeSince the 1990s, alternative (art) spaces have been emerging in several cities in Indonesia. This kind of sites characterize clearly or vaguely the contact point between the practice of visual art and the culture discourse, which is being defined anew. Alternative spaces do not thereby intend to replace the institutions that, as a "center", have thus far produced the discourse and controlled significant things. With the initiative of creating alternative art spaces, the artists have a different aim. Among other things, they seek to build a network with overarching cooperation in art or disciplines, in order to achieve a "political" effect. The alternative art space is not thereby anything exclusive. The primary idea is to spread, on a grand scale, the horizontal exchange between the practice of art and the culture. ...
H. Wiyanto: "ruangrupa" in lower case letters thus, you mention, wants to activate art in the broader cultural environment. What kind of culture do you actually mean with this term?
A. Darmawan: The culture that stands in significant relation to todays or the current life reality. We see visual art as the practice of culture. How can visual art be located in the same relevant idea "spaces" as todays socio-cultural problems? Since we are in Jakarta, the most obvious urban problems are in view. Various subjects arise in the art projects and workshops: printed matter as a product of urban culture, public space, residential settlements, photography and social context, the propaganda of the municipal government, transport, and other things.
H. Wiyanto: How do you bring into your events the discourses and practice of visual art that are tied to the cultural environment?
A. Darmawan: Discussions, brainstorming, and certain ideas usually begin with the social and cultural phenomena or problems. "Shape" is a strategy of expression or communication. Or, vice versa, we see visual phenomena as socio-cultural phenomena and always include our minimal research in it, and then we attempt to open this up with questions and playfulness..
H. Wiyanto: You also publish "Karbon", an art journal that appears every 3-4 months and whose themes are related to public problems. Is the public and publicity the main discourse developing in "ruangrupa"?
A. Darmawan: We publish "Karbon" to compensate for the lack of critical analyses of visual art and of its relationship to the socio-cultural context. Yes, public affairs are the main theme developing in "ruangrupa". The artist should no longer position himself as a "prophet" or "healer", as the center of consciousness and master of a language that is not that of the broad public or understood by it. We see the relationship to the public sphere more horizontally, as more permeable in both directions, and not distanced; we see ourselves more in the position of a collaborator than as furnishers, negotiators, or mediators. With this viewpoint, we have no difficulties entering the "real" world of everyday life as a main component of the work (art). This means as a component of the work on a mural on an overpass, in video screening at techno events, in discussions with students in Jakarta about the problems of artists training and the propaganda strategies of the municipal government, and even in silkscreen workshops with groups of street artists on the outskirts of the city.
H. Wiyanto: I have observed several times that, at your events in "ruangrupa", for example at workshops, artist residencies, exhibitions, etc., almost exclusively young people are present who do not show up at the exhibitions of the usual galleries. How do you define this community of "ruangrupa"?
A. Darmawan: We have never tried to build up a "community". We try to reach a new audience, with faster publications, for example via e-mail, radio, and youth magazines that the general art scene might not touch. How many of the 15 million people in Jakarta come to the exhibitions in the well-known galleries? Many groups that come to "ruangrupa" do so because they are interested and because they can make a connection between their everyday reality and our events. That attracts people not only from the circle of artists, but also students and people from the media, design, music, architecture... in short, the young circle, creative people who think openly and uncomplicatedly. We also distribute information in established circles of artists, but to this day it is still not clear why these are not so interested. Maybe because they think that what we are concerned with is not art...
H. Wiyanto: Recently, a good video work appeared by a young artist who is active in "ruangrupa", Reza "Asung" Afisina. "Asung" (translators comment: asung means to stir up, to agitate) is starting to gain international renown. "ruangrupa" already drew attention at the Biennial in Gwangju, and "Pause" (2002) even received special recognition from UNESCO. Why is "ruangrupa" receiving this respect in the international framework?
A. Darmawan: Something is not right about the way we identify ourselves. This usually happens with various things. There are many works, artists, and art organizations (going as far as the Orang Utans), that are clearly more "esteemed" out there. In the last ten years, so much has changed in the worlds art scene; many interesting and important artists and organizations/groups with art events are emerging that do not come from the "center" of arts development. One of the phenomena is the artists initiatives (events or groups organized by the artists themselves), which usually arise in countries of the periphery and which intensely focus on local problems. This phenomenon also strengthens the peripheral network and becomes important in the development of visual art worldwide; it is regarded as an "alternative" to the center or to the mainstream ideas of the West, and of course this concerns the young artists now.
