From: Carlos Roque
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 10:19:03 -0500
Subject: Fwd: Arts in Danger
Dear friends,
I am taking the liberty to forward you this email from my dear friend Rifky Effendy, an Indonesian curator based in Jakarta.
Protests against an artwork on view at the CP Biennial in Jakarta and the subsequent closing of the Biennial seems to be part of an uprising movement to impose Islamic rule on Indonesia. Now, the artist himself, people involved in the making of the artwork, and the CP Biennial curator are all risking long term prison sentences for their involvement with something which should not be considered a crime.
Please read the following text.
Yours truly,
Carlos
Begin forwarded message:
From: Rifky Effendy
Date: February 26, 2006 12:58:01 AM EST
Subject: Arts in Danger
Dear Friends,
I would like to invite you to support us, please check
below. Please spread this info.
Thank you.
Best
Rifky
JKT
http://pinkswing.wordpress.com/
http://senirupaindonesia.blogspot.com/
article:
Navel gazing ruled out as Indonesians button up
By Mark Forbes Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
February 25, 2006
taken from:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/02/24/1140670261932.html
ROCKING in a pink swing fashioned from the cab of a
pedal-driven rickshaw, Agus Suwage felt at peace. He
had just installed his Pinkswing Park exhibit at
Jakarta's international biennale and was surrounded by
massive panels with multiple pictures of a near-naked
man and woman frolicking in a utopian park - a world
away from thoughts of religious furore, public
condemnation and possible imprisonment.
The softly spoken, bespectacled 47-year-old seems an
unlikely martyr, his only concession to the battle now
enveloping his life is a peaked camouflage hat with a
skull and crossbones button pinned to its front.
Within days of November's exhibition launch, Islamic
fundamentalists had shoved Suwage to the forefront of
their struggle to redefine Indonesia by descending on
the biennale, forcing its closure and demanding
prosecutions. At first police claimed his work
blasphemed the story of Adam and Eve, then last week
they told Suwage he faced five years in jail for
producing pornography.
The same groups staging violent demonstrations against
the West over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad are
targeting pornography in their battle to transform
Indonesia into a strict Islamic nation. And they are
winning: parliament is set to introduce a sweeping
anti-pornography law.
Expected to be passed by June, the law imposes a rigid
social template; couples who kiss in public will face
up to five years' jail, as would anyone flaunting a
"sensual body part" - including their navel - and
tight clothing will be outlawed.
Most women's groups are horrified, entertainment
industries believe it could destroy them and Bali's
embattled tourism authorities are alarmed at the
prospect of sunbathing tourists being arrested.
Mainstream Islamic organisations are warning of moral
decay and backing the bill, while politicians, wary of
alienating Indonesia's Muslim majority, are condoning
the growing anti-porn movement.
Plans to introduce Playboy's soft porn to the
Indonesian market next month have become another focus
of rowdy demonstrations, with protesters portraying
the magazine as a symbol of the decadent West's attack
on Islam. Playboy's publishers are proposing a bizarre
compromise, no naked women will be featured -
Indonesians, at least, will be able to say they only
buy it for the articles.
In Jakarta, police have seized hundreds of thousands
of "erotic" magazines - including FHM and Rolling
Stone - and DVDs, after an edict from police chief
Sutanto to "eradicate pornography".
The Islamic Defenders Front spearheads the anti-porn
protests. It took two days to track down its leader,
Habib Riziek, this week - he was at police
headquarters, seeking information about "his men"
arrested for allegedly attacking the US embassy in
Jakarta last week. Porn, including artworks such as
Suwage's, contributes to moral delinquency, Riziek
claims. "We don't care about the technicality of the
picture," he says. "What we care is that the picture
is publicly exhibited and it is pornography and it
would damage morals." Suwage believes his work
captured attention because one of the models,
Anjasmara, is a popular soapie star. The two models,
photographer Davy Linggar and the curator of the
biennale, Jim Supangkat, are also facing criminal
charges.
Suwage is increasingly bitter about Supangkat's
reaction to the protest. After hundreds of
demonstrators arrived at the exhibition, a panicked
Supangkat ordered the offending panels to be covered
with white cloth. Other artists draped their own works
in solidarity and Supangkat closed the biennale,
permanently.
Suwage believes his prosecution is linked to pressure
to pass the anti-porn law and the desire of
fundamentalists to impose Islamic rule on Indonesia.
Suwage, who is afraid of prison, says he is determined
to fight.
Based at a small cafe gallery in Jakarta's backpacker
precinct, Suwage and a motley collective or artists
are mobilising against the new law. "From this case,
we make a manifesto for art against the pornography
bill. It's very dangerous for freedom of _expression
but it also threatens other aspects of society."
Riziek remains emphatic the bill is essential to
"guard the nation's morality" against pornography,
which extends past explicit photographs to "anything
that could arouse sexual desire".
Balkan Kaplale heads the parliamentary committee
finalising the pornography bill and is confident it
will become law this year.
It would halt the publication of magazines such as
Playboy, he says. " Playboy would place a time bomb in
Indonesia, what guarantee is there it would not arrive
in the hands of our children? Playboy is American
magazine. Please, don't play this game with
Indonesians, we have dignity."
Indonesians also have sensuality, says leading
feminist and university professor Gadis Arriva. "Women
here have always dressed sexily and in tight clothes,
this law is something very alien to us, we have
barebreasted women in Bali and Papua, this is part of
our culture."
In Bali, the head of the government's tourism
authority, Gede Nurjaya, agrees. Traditional Balinese
art and dance could become illegal, he believes. He is
concerned prohibitions against kissing and revealing
bodies could be imposed against foreigners, destroying
Bali's faltering tourism industry.
Arriva says most women's groups oppose the bill. "Most
of it restricts women, what they wear, how they act.
It even creates a board that would go around
monitoring women's behaviour."
The new law would also gag a flourishing emergence of
young female writers, who write openly about
sexuality. "It states it is illegal to express any
sexual desire, even imagine sex - how do you prove
that?" asks Arriva.
She sees the anti-porn movement as part of an agenda
to reshape Indonesia, with pornography a symbol of
Western culture to the many Muslims who believe
globalisation aims to destroy their culture. Adrian
Vickers, Professor of Asian Studies at the University
of Wollongong, agrees the debate is "part of whipping
up a moral panic about Western decadence eroding
Indonesian culture and morality", with the potential
to push Indonesia towards an Islamic state. "Given
anxieties about terrorism, a more Islamic Indonesia
could see Australia very much as the enemy," he warns.
A closed society looms, says Suwage. "There would be
no freedom, it will have a big impact for us, for
artists, but it will go everywhere. I don't believe a
picture can change a person's morality. Morality
starts from the individual, from inside, not from
dogma."
with Karuni Rompies
**********************************************
Carlos Roque
267 Lincoln Place, #5C
Brooklyn, NY 11238 U.S.A.
Cell: 917 302 2299
http://www.carlosroque.info
