Witness these seven fragments of ideas that are presented in the ICAD 2016: SEVEN SCENES to become the way to read a variety of changes in regional and social contexts.
Photo by Stephanie Mamonto, ICAD 2016 Documentation
This year’s Indonesian Contemporary Art and Design forum, held from 7 October – 7 December, has attracted the presence of art/design collaborative projects, especially those that contain an awareness of social space and territory. Collaborative works have become very important as the artist/designer is no longer the “center” but both the initiator and facilitator of a common idea. An art/design project, according to curator Hafiz Rancajale, is not only imagining the ideal in the work itself, but also as a medium of critique, reflection, and evaluation in seeing the development of a territory and society.
Cities change, thus the value of space becomes paramount. Such changes are being addressed by these seven project leaders; Agung Kurniawan, Budi Pradono, Eko Nugroho, Hermawan Tanzil, Oscar Lawalata, Tita Salina, and Tromarama.
Being held at the Grand Kemang Hotel, Jakarta for the seventh time, ICAD 2016: SEVEN SCENES is trying to reflect on the development of contemporary artworks over a seven year period through a different approach. These seven project leaders have been asked to experiment with upheavals in urban life we have to deal with due to changes resulting from everyday struggle.
Budi Pradono, for example, presents an imaginative design of a vertical kampong, an open structure as the basic idea for city infrastructure in “Kampung Vertikal”. The residence is imagined as a cloud that can be made into compartments according to requirements. It allows the diffusion of efficient three dimensional social spaces without being constrained by horizontal orientation, instead growing vertically where social spaces can be distributed.
Also playing with lines, Tita Salina in “The Missing Horizon” invites us to look again at the viewing space separating the sky and the earth that has gone from the city. It confirms the boundaries between classes: the upper class reaches the sky while the lower sinks deeper into the earth. The audience can experience the challenge in trying to find the missing horizon which traverses Kemang in a curvy line projected by laser every Friday and Saturday (6PM-9PM).
Thoughts on the city are also picked up by Hermawan Tanzil who has recorded a collective memory of the phenomenon that is Kemang, coincidentally the area where Tanzil has always lived. Through “Kemang RT/RW”, he brings the people and memorable places that have become part of his life there, the inextricable parts of Kemang. These recordings are presented in the form of a book as a large installation, dominating the room. The audience can also experience a mini tour around Kemang Dalam area every Saturday and Sunday (5PM).
Another social criticism appears in “The Soap Project” by Agung Kurniawan, who has collaborated with Kinanthi Soap from Yogyakarta, as a response to Indonesian socio-political issues. Agung asks us to never forget the nation’s debt to solving human rights violation cases , through blocks of soap designed to resemble the faces of the human rights fighters who became victims and who have subsequently, ‘been washed away’ from this life.
From ICAD 2016: SEVEN SCENES, we can consider pictures of the modern city seen in society today as well as new proposals for the ideals in life that change along with the city itself. You can also find a fringe event, “WUSINWUG (What U See Is Not What U Get)”, curated by Ika Vantiani, that provides us with a new understanding of how fashion is a representative production that we just cannot live without today. “WUSINWUG” opens on November 7th as part of ICAD 2016 and issupported by Anton Ismael, Felicia Budi, Marishka Soekarna, and Tommy Ambiyo.
