Jatiwangi International Performance Art Festival 2008

Yet another year of participating in the fabulous Jatiwangi International Performance Art Festival. Unfortunately I had to come two days late because of the kemana pun project, and leave a day early because of the village library project (check out my other site: http://thevillagelibrary.blogspot.com/). So it's been a very busy past couple of months. But the JAF Festival was really wonderful, and I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to participate, again. Curated this year by Juliana Yasin and Heru Hikayat (who did an excellent job), the JAF Festival was spread across seven villages in Majalengka, West Java, and lasted over the span of nine days. Performance artists from all over the world participated, and countries represented included Thailand, Brazil, Singapore, Australia, United States, Malaysia, Dubai and various locations in Indonesia. All artists were unique and wonderful, and we felt like one big family gathering to laugh, make music, dance, eat and support each other in creating awesome performance pieces. Situated in individual family homes, each artist got a direct taste of life in Indonesia, and instantly felt a 'part of the family', eating meals together and playing with the hundreds of village children nearby. Each artist was also provided with a personal assistant to help them prepare for performance, and I was blessed with the lovely Umi Lutfi, my dear friend and kick-ass assistant. For my own project, I made a film that offered glimpses of the many different activities of people's hands in the surrounding areas of Jatiwangi. These activities included ironing, straightening out bent nails, applying henna design, cooking, playing music, sewing and more. For the performance, I set up the film to be displayed in the JAF rooftile factory (for more info read my past Jatiwangi post from June 2007), candle-lit and everything. In the end of the film, a series of images of many hands together was displayed. At this moment the audience was invited up to stick their hands in mud and leave their own imprints on the pictures reflecting on the projection screen. My hope was that this would invite the audience to focus on their own hands, and also create a sense of 'togetherness' between all audience members. All in all, the project was a success, and I felt really good about it. Additionally, for fun, I also had the chance to dance a Jaipongan mask dance (newer traditional dance style from West Java) with a local JAF member, Anex. We performed following the shadow puppetry performance of my good friend Carrie Morris (see link below), and it was a full audience of local village members and JAF artists and friends. The performance was a big hit, very funny, and in the end audience members came up to join in the dance. A hidden gift of the performance for me was that the sarong in my costume kept falling down in the end. This offered itself as a hilarious mix to the already crazy character, and the chaos of everything left audience members laughing out loud, which is always a key aim in my performances: laughter and enjoyment! So all in all, the festival was fabulous, I had a great time, and if I have the chance to join again in the future, I most definitely will. Thank you to all the organizers at JAF, all the wonderful people in Jatiwangi and surrounding areas, to Juliana and Heru, and all other amazing artists involved! Hope to see you again next year.

Performance and Adventure at the Top of the Mountain

The Performance Klub in Yogyakarta holds a yearly performance art festival in the surrounding area of Yogyakarta. Last year, it took place in a small village in Bantul, commemorating the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that rocked Yogyakarta in May, 2006. This year, the festival took place at Krinjing Village, high up in the mountains at the edge of Merapi, the volcano that towers over Yogyakarta and central Java. The theme, 'Global Warming, Global Warning', comes at a time when the active discussion of how to take charge of the health of our environment is essential to its survival for future generations. International artists and locals alike gathered together, participating in early-afternoon seminars regarding global warming and ways to save our environment from complete destruction, and afternoon performances reflecting individual and group thoughts about the environment. Coming from a theater background, I'll admit that at times I find "performance art" to be boring- where's the excitement? Where's the beginning, middle and end? What really is performance, and how does performance art encompass that? This year's event was focused on group performance, forcing the typically solo performers to get into a group and collaborate. Ending results ranged, but I found for the most part the majority of performers to be working together but still separately, many of them doing individual actions in a shared space. The few that did work together included members of Taring Padi, who had audience members stick Salon Pas, heated patches, all over their bodies until they were full, yelling out "Panas!" ("Hot!"), "Body Warming!", and with help from the audience then taking those same patches and sticking them to a tree. This was a light-hearted way to link our own bodies to that of the earth, and brought enjoyment to participants all around. Another group, two performance artists from Surabaya and two from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, brought a large stack of tiny mirrors and handed them out to audience members. The audience then followed them up the hill and reflected the sun with their mirrors. This created an effective image, and brought direct relation between the audience members and the sun. On the last night of the festival, a group of thirty performers gathered together at midnight and climbed to the top of the volcano. This twelve-hour, strenuous climb was intense and not easy, a full hands-and-knees event, but once at the top for sunrise, it was stunning, and worth the scrapes and sore legs the following day. Global Warming, how many times do we have to say it's a reality? What is the most effective way to make people think twice about the way they consume, about what they burn and use for transportation? Is performance a good way to communicate these issues? Perhaps it is, and perhaps it isn't. The most important thing, I think, is gathering together as a community and making a true effort to discuss these issues, and take direct actions to address the way we treat our earth. Global Warming, Global Warning!!!