Art (Without) Politics.

First of all, I did not speak as a member of any educational institution here. This article was written down based on my concern as a single person and an art devotee. The cause of this article was a Twitwar incident happened in the evening of January 2nd, 2013.

The Twitwar was between by two state senior high schools in Jogjakarta city, let’s call them School A and Schol B. Both will hold an art appreciaton event, an event which was pioneered by school A. The Twitwar started when School B promoted their newly-made art event. A student of school B satired school A's event; school A reacts harshly and stating their originality.

Here I want to mention a mural I saw on another art event, the Indonesian Comic Festival, held at Jogja National Museum, that I visited in the late December. The mural write a sentence that instantly catched my eye. It wrote, "No politic allowed in this place."

I love the words because I think it summed up everything about art. Art is not about power, control, or political agenda. Art is simply about beauty and joy; about appreciating the beauty and come in its joy. That is why true art differs from propaganda. The true agenda of art is only about spreading beauty and nothing about gaining control over anything.

In the 2012 conference of Federation of Asian Cultural Promotion, the artists agreed that no art may contain any political agenda. Art is regarded as a universal language that may not be used to promote certain political ideology. This had been the consensus for at least Asian artist -- and a spirit that the earlier mural embraced.

Thus, the Twitwar was totally ironic. Both events stand for the apprecation of art, but they compete each other in an unhealthy way. They compete each other in the matter of promotion and gaining audience -- but in this case, both had also lost their focus in the essence of art. Art is about togetherness, where people blend together under the concept of beauty without considering any political, gender, religious labels. The Twitwar was an irony as it actually torn people apart.

Yes, indeed I am a student in the School B. But yes, I am a big fan of School A's art event. I was totally amazed by their bravery to hold such event for high school student audience, at the time when such event was not so popular. But they kept it going on and I must say that it still rocks. As a pioneer, they totally nailed it.

So it made me totally deplored of the way some people treat others in the twitwar. Satiring others is not a good promotion. It is a sad and shameful act of arrogance. Whether it is the newbie gloating their arrogance nor the pioneer insisting their superiority, such tweets only show how unprofessional the tweeps are. Compete well, but compete good. We don't need any other Twitwar as we can compete professionally.

I have tried to be objective and label myself only as an art devotee in this post. I did not carry any agenda to put any institution first. This solely my opinion and did not purposedly reflect the perspective of any institution that I joined in. 

I can only say that both event will put their differences aside and put their likeness first. Both events are forms of art appreciation which, though stand individually, have the same purpose. In the end, it is all about being unite in art and embracing beauty together; without any label, without politics.

Goodluck to Delayota Art. Goodluck to Padmanaba DedicArt. With all my respect and support.

Obituari

Kemarin, tanggal 20 Mei 2008, kita semua lihat kalau di televisi, sekitar pukul 19.00 WIB, semua channel-nya menyiarkan satu acara yang sama: Perayaan Hari Kebangkitan Nasional. Tempatnya di Stadion Utama Gelora Bung Karno, kalau nggak salah. Perayaannya rame... banget: ada tarian tradisional, pertunjukkan drum band, de el el.

Tapi, pasti ada yang luput dari perhatian kalian semua. Kalau kalian lihat channel Indosiar atau MetroTV, di news banner-nya, ada dua berita mengejutkan. Pertama-tama, soal meninggalnya Ali Sadikin, manta Wali Kota Jakarta, yang jasanya jelas sangat berharga. Tapi yang paling mengejutkan ialah meninggalnya SK Trimurti. Yang sudah kelas 6, jelas tahu dong, siapa beliau. SK Trimurti merupakan istri dari pengetik naskah proklamasi Indonesia, Sayuti Melik.

Selain itu, ada juga hal lain yang dikesampingkan. Jangan lupa, Indonesia sedang berada dalam zaman keterpurukannya, kalau aku boleh bilang. Bencana di mana-mana; angka kemiskinan melonjak; BBM naik; serta tragedi klise lainnya yang kuping sampai bosan ndengerin.

Poin yang mau aku sampaikan, tidakkah perayaan ini merupakan sebuah paradoks yang sempurna? Sebuah pesta besar, dengan biaya yang pastilah mahal sekali, hanya untuk bersenang-senang dan mempertontonkan kebanggaan negara--sementara, di luar stadion, dua pahlawan bangsa meregang nyawa, dan berjuta-juta rakyat Indonesia menjerit meminta perhatian para pejabat.

Memang, perayaan ini mungkin bisa menumbuhkan nasionalisme--tapi, sekali lagi, mungkin. Tapi, bukannya lebih berguna bagi para pejabat negara, serta presiden, untuk memikirkan negara, beban yang diemban mereka semua? Semua orang memang butuh refreshing. Tapi, seharusnya, dalam kondisi sulit di Indonesia, yang lebih dibutuhkan adalah tindakan, bukan sekadar deklarasi atau janji, yang ibaratnya "masuk telinga kiri keluar telinga kanan".

Nah, pertanyaanku bagi kamu yang membaca blog ini, menurutmu apa itu hari Kebangkitan Nasional? Apa maknanya bagimu? Hari libur biasa, untuk "refreshing"; atau justru kalian lebih bijak, dengan memaknainya lebih dalam?

Karena sesungguhnya, makna dari hari Kebangkitan Nasional adalah kebangkitan dari para rakyatnya, generasi mudanya--karena generasi muda adalah penggerak bangsa. Generasi mudalah yang bisa melahirkan ide-ide baru; generasi mudalah yang bisa menciptakan inovasi; generasi mudalah yang bisa menciptakan revolusi. Meskipun pemerintahan kita mungkin dikuasai oleh para pejabat yang tergolong sudah (maaf) tua, tetapi bukan berarti kita lalu begitu saja menyerahkannya pada mereka itu. Sebab, dengan begitu, jelas Indonesia akan selalu tertinggal, karena tidak ada inovasi dalam sistem yang jadul.

Oleh sebab itu, maknailah Kebangkitan Nasional dengan ini: bahwa Kebangkitan Nasional berarti adalah kebangkitan para generasi muda dalam memperjuangkan Indonesia, demi membangkitkan kebanggan tanah air kita yang telah lama tertidur dalam kekunoan.