DISCOURSE ON CONTEMPORARY ART IN INDONESIAN BIENNALES BETWEEN THE YEARS 1993-200

• Main Author: GUMILAR (NIM: 27014011), GANJAR
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/27455
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

This thesis aims to analyse the process of adopting, articulating, and contextualising the <br /> <br /> discourse of contemporary art through the practice of exhibition making, specifically <br /> <br /> biennale, between the years of 1993 to 2003. The method applied in this research is <br /> <br /> curatorial studies, an attempt to explore alternate approach towards art history through the <br /> <br /> concept of ‘exhibition histories’. This alternate approach enables this research to widen its <br /> <br /> scope of analysis aside from aesthetic discourse which is already ‘established’ in <br /> <br /> ‘conventional’ art history. <br /> <br /> In the early 1990s, the practice of contemporary art was thought of as somewhat <br /> <br /> problematic in Indonesia. This was due to how ‘foreign’ this contemporary discourse was <br /> <br /> and exasperated with insufficient public knowledge. This rendered public to be indifferent <br /> <br /> towards contemporary art: some choose to appreciated and saw its possibilities further as <br /> <br /> demonstrated at Binal Experimental Arts 1992, yet some tended to be critical and nullified <br /> <br /> its significance in Bienalle Seni Rupa Jakarta IX 1993. In advance, contemporary art in <br /> <br /> Indonesia which at first be exercised in the periphery, started to gradually found its <br /> <br /> relevance and basis in Indonesian art, prompted by ‘international artist’ whom at first <br /> <br /> claimed their recognitions and merit in international forum. In national context, biennales <br /> <br /> served as a platform to ‘eased’ the transition and to erected relevant contextualisation of <br /> <br /> contemporary art practice. In retrospect, these attempts started to come into fruition, when <br /> <br /> art mainstream started to embrace its ‘contemporary practice’ and keen to explore further <br /> <br /> possibilities. <br /> <br /> Three biennales were determined to be the primary samples of this research, which are: <br /> <br /> Bienal Seni Rupa Yogyakarta 1999, Bienal Yogyakarta 2003: Countrybution, and CP <br /> <br /> Open Biennale 2003: Interpellation. These biennales are specifically chosen due to their <br /> <br /> specific qualities and prominences in approaching Indonesian contemporary art discourse. <br /> <br /> Through careful examination towards each curatorial performance inherent in these <br /> <br /> biennales, it may well be argued that this format virtually serves as an exposé to recent <br /> <br /> aesthetic innovations towards the first quarter of the 2000s. Methods be utilised in <br /> <br /> exposing these innovations did also range in diversity: BSRY 1999 traced further <br /> <br /> implication after the internationalisation of the 1990s, BY 2003 contextualised recent <br /> <br /> practice to recent sociopolitical context, and CPOB revolving around the issue of ‘the