This was presented in the "Asian Contemporary Art Forum" at Taipei National University of Arts (26 September 2014) as part of the Kuandu Biennale 2014: Recognition System (held by Kuandu Museum of Modern and Fine Arts)

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2. Can you see us?

3. Can you see us?

4. Can you hear us?

5. Can you hear us?

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9. Do you know what we are talking about?

10. This is a 20 minutes presentation that wants
us to speak about three things:

11. (1)
The artist’s work in the
Kuandu Biennale 2014;

12. (2)
the biennale’s theme, System Recognition,
and their topic for this session, the micro-perceptions
in the organic world;

13. (3)
and my curatorial practice or my national
observation on contemporary arts in Asia

14. Wait! That’s 3 items with 2 ands.
So it’s actually 5 items!

15. Wow!
This is going to be a very difficult 20
minutes.

16. I am now speaking in Indonesian language.

17. I am now speaking in Terhah language.

18. What you see in this screen is English.

19. What you hear in your earphones is
Chinese.

20. Tepu can add more language as he also
speaks Sundanese—the language used in
West Java, Indonesia

21. Grace can add more language as she also
speaks Jogja-styled Javanese—the
language used in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

22. The presentation will even be much more
difficult if we try to speak in this all these
languages all throughout.

23. FIRST.

24. It is always problematic
to talk about an artwork.

25. Especially Tepu’s work
in Kuandu Biennale 2014.

26. Not because it is a ‘difficult work’.

27. Simply because
almost all of you haven’t seen it.

28. And if you see it later this afternoon,
the work is not yet completed.

29. It is not because we haven’t done our jobs.
Haha. But it depends on the oysters when
they would want to be done.

30. Or maybe it depends on the museum, when
they would want to uninstall the work, how
will they uninstall the work, would they kill
the oysters, etc…

31. Ah, sorry for the spoiler…

32. Let us show you this image anyway…

38. >> 01 IndoArtNow_Tepu.mp4
(Click to watch)

39. After seeing that,
do you now ‘get’ Tepu’s works?

40. An artwork is made to be seen, heard,
smelt, tasted, felt. Or simply experienced.

41. An Indonesian philosopher ST Sunardi
once said that, “At its heart, an artwork
demand to be seen.”

42. An artwork demand to be seen, heard,
smelt, tasted, felt. Or simply experienced.

43. Simply experienced…

44. First of all, simple never meant easy peasy.

45. And, second, to create simplicity, people go
through a whole lot of trouble.

46. Seriously.

47. Go ask Archimedes!

48. His “Eureka!” shout is so unbelievably
famous yet people often associate it with the
‘wrong’ invention.

49. Many people think that it is related to the
Archimedes principle about the up thrust of
body immersed in fluids—that then become
the fundamentals of fluid mechanics.

50. Yet, that was actually a shout because he
realized that volumes of irregular objects
CAN be measured with precision.

51. Experiences are complex.

52. Often neglected or ignored,
but, seriously, it is complex.

53. It is complex because it is based on each
and every human being’s memory. And by
memory, we do not mean it as ‘just’…

54. I am amazed whenever anyone say that
they don’t understand an artwork.

55. Sometimes they even excuse themselves as
‘general public’, ‘general audience’,
whatever… or even worse, some say that
they are ‘normal people’.

56. What does that mean, by the way?
Are artists abnormal people?
Or is the art public abnormal?

57. Art is experienced.

58. Artwork is experienced.

59. Artist creates ‘things’
—be it object-based or not—
that generate experience or experiences.

60. In the arts, if it sends you ONE SHARP
message, probably it is commissioned.
Haha. I’m kidding.

61. Because art is experienced,
anyone CAN understand art.

62. Another joke,
a philosophical one if you may:
Even when you think that you don’t
understand it, it is still a form of
understanding the art.

63. Anyone CAN stand in front of, behind, in the
middle of, above, below, or whatever, an
artwork.

64. Their senses will feel
the presence of the work.

65. Their brain will process their senses into a
kind of information regarding their
references—or simply stuff they have on
what is called the memory.

66. This is when the philosophical joke becomes
true. So, even when one decided that they
do not understand the work, they have
experienced it.

67. Statements like “I don’t get it” or
“I am ‘normal people’” is around us
because of the existence of art institutions.

68. Not just institution, institution
but also person as institution
and people as institutions.

69. Places like this,
institutions like galleries,
museums etc.
People like me,
people like you,
people like us.

70. Back to the premise:
ART IS EXPERIENCED.

71. SECOND.

72. Recognition as a verb.
Gestalt of art.
Asian contemporary art.

73. That’s as much as I can remember of the
biennale’s premise.

74. Micro-perceptions.
Organic.
World.

75. That’s as much as I can remember of the
talk’s topic.

76. Memory is tricky.
Yet experience(s) depend on memory(ies)…

77. Those are words, concepts, ideas imposed
on artworks or projects. So, maybe it is
better to hear what the biennale thinks about
these ideas…

78. As for us…
Let us talk about what we know and
what we would like you to know from
the part of the world where we come from.

79. We have a cool friend.
His name is Fajar Abadi.

80. He is cool because
when you Google-translate
his name to English,
it says Eternal Dawn.
Haha.

81. Sorry, we are just trying to keep this as
informal as we can. We are nervous 

82. This is the kind of stuff that he does.

83. >> 02 Fajar Abadi_Kueh Senyum.mp4
(Click to watch)

84. Yes, he is an artist.

85. No, he is not a performance artist.
At least he doesn’t call himself that way.

86. His work deals with
taste and human interactions.

87. His work deals with
taste/flavor/sense*
and human interactions.

88. Had to * that, since in Indonesian language
we have the word ‘rasa’ that means all four
of those words: Taste, flavor, sense, feel.

89. His works starts with
the equal position of human being.

90. Be it him
the producer,
artist or
whatever you call him;
…

91. …
the audience,
the spectator or
—again—whatever you call them;
…

92. …
and us,
the second-rate audience,
the observers,
the art public,
or—again—whatever you consider us.

93. His works are impossible without
many people’s involvement.

94. Within his works, he does not position other
human being as audience, participants,
viewers, spectators, or whatever.

95. Within his works, he does not position
himself as producer, creator, maker, chef, or
whatever.

96. Within his works, people are people.

97. He uses rasa to equalize people.
taste/flavor/sense/feel

98. Rasa is his medium
taste/flavor/sense/feel

99. His aesthetic is ‘ancient’:
ART AS EXPERIENCE.

100. But we still think that he’s cool! 

101. Still don’t believe us?
Look! Who would have asked
ones mother to be in his artwork?
Well, Fajar did!

103. He challenged his mother in a cooking
battle. He asked her to cook his comfort
food, chicken soup.

104. He taught himself to cook a better version of
the chicken soup—well, he thinks its better.

105. He made his mom serve the soup
to people by feeding them.

108. He himself served his soup
in a rather classy manner.

109. He asked the people whose soup is better.

110. Mom wins! Of course!

112. Next! Another friend of ours, is based in a
rural area, named Jatiwangi. Located in the
middle of West and Central Java. Rural does
not immediately translate to village. So,
don’t mistaken this.

113. A bunch of our friend gathered there
in some sort of a collective called
Jatiwangi art Factory.

114. That was not a misspelled.
The ‘art’ in the middle of their name
is spelled with lowercase.

115. That was not a misspelled.
The ‘art’ in the middle of their name
is spelled with lowercase.

116. And, no, they are not an artists’ collective.
They are a collective of citizens, human
beings that care about each other and their
surroundings.

117. Why do we think that they’re cool?

118. Not all they do is necessary art.
Not all they do is art per se.
Not all they do is activism.
Not all they do is for the sake
of greater good.

119. But, …
all they do, is
from, with and for
their surroundings.

120. >> 03 JaF_Mari Membuang Sampah
dengan Baik.mp4
(Click to watch)

121. Unfortunately, there is no English subtitle in
the video. So, let’s just turn down the sound.

122. They are sharing about ways to deal with
unused plastic bags and plastic-based
trashes.

123. This is a very ‘communist’ image. Haha.

124. Anyway, this is a collaborative project by a
Bandung-based artist Prilla Tania, Jatiwangi-based
artist Loranitha Theo and ladies in
Jatisura Village. The project is done as a
part of JaF’s annual festival.

125. In JaF, things, events, activities, exhibition,
activism or whatever you want to call it,
happens both naturally (the way the people
wanted) and constructively (the way the
artist ‘dreamed’).

126. By dream, we meant the Dan Graham kind
of dream, “All artists are alike. They dream
of doing something that’s more social, more
collaborative, and more real than art.”

127. During their very first Ceramic Music
Festival, JaF launched the hymn of the
Jatiwangi district along with the Jatiwangi
Pledge.

128. >> 04 JaF_Jatiwangi Hymn - English
version.mp4
>> 05 JaF_Ceramic Music Festival &
Jatiwangi Pledge.mp4
(Click to watch)

129. Our friends in JaF do not really care if what
they do is considered art or not.

130. They are open for those who look at them
and think that they use art as a tool to
communicate to their surrounding; and those
who look at them and say that they are
doing—whatever the suitable label is
nowadays—participatory art, community
project, public art, relational aesthetic,
yadda, yadda, yadda…

131. But, to us, they are artists.

132. The changes that happen within their society
are their works.

133. Their works are not physical in the sense
that it can be seen, heard, smelt, tasted, felt.

134. BUT! —and that’s a big but—
Their works can be experienced.

135. To be more precise, their works only exist if
you experience it as locals—themselves or
their surroundings.

136. And they are conscious about this state.

137. One of their statements say something like,
“When we say ‘the public’, we actually know
where they live—not just their names or
profession.”

138. One say that what makes an object art is the
simply consciousness of the creator towards
his creation—not the object, not the skill, not
the medium, etc.

139. When we say ART AS EXPERIENCE, this
links back to what is now labeled as
traditional art, some say craft, some say
decorative art, whatever…

140. ‘That’ kind of art has always been a part of a
larger social constellation back home.
Be it social rituals (giving birth, weddings,
death, etc), religious rituals (temple
sculptures, church installations, Kejawen
which is Javanese religion practices, etc)…

141. ‘That’ kind of art is considered traditional
because of modern art practices are thought
through educational system that is Western-influenced…

142. Ah! Not going to dwell into this…
Parts of my view on this are in my essay.

143. I brought up because it is then interesting to
see the more ‘studio-based’ kind of practices
or ‘object-oriented’ kind of practices…

144. These kinds of practices are of course the
biggest percentage of practice from where
we come from.

145. Time is chasing us, so we will just go
through some works with key statements
from the artist in relation to this ‘experience-making’
that we have been talking about…

146. Time is chasing us, so we will just go
through some works with key statements
from the artist in relation to this ‘experience-making’
that we have been talking about…

147. Look at Handiwirman Saputra’s works.

148. Look at Handiwirman Saputra’s works.

150. Painting

152. Painting

154. Object

156. Painting

158. Object

159. How does he make his works?

160. “I always have set myself in a certain
condition to create, to make…
I call it ‘conditioning’.”

161. “I have never liked it when people say that I
have ‘my own language’ or even ‘my own
visual language’, because I am not trying
communicate especially with words thus
uses language. I am creating stimulations
for visual experiences.”

162. Well, we can go on and on about our friends
works… But maybe that’s that for now.

163. We are happy to be speaking
with our own languages.

164. We are happy that there are all these
possibilities—with translation, subtitles,
etc—to make you experience our
language…

165. And even that we haven’t mentioned any
practices out of Java, the island that we are
based.

166. Indonesia has 5 big islands (Java,
Sumatera, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Irian)
and in total 33.000 small islands…

167. National observation.
Uh, forgive us…

168. Cheers 