The art of video art: video art and OK. Video Festival

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Video Art

I

n recent times, video art has gone digital, viral and global.

as ruangrupa’s journal Karbon; websites, such as www.video-battle.

Today, we live in a culture dominated by the visual, but we still

net; festivals, such as OK. Video Festival; conferences, such as the

resort to language to analyze and interpret our visual culture. We

recent Video Vortex in Yogyakarta; artists in residence programs (later

privilege language for the purpose of (theoretical) art criticism,

this year Tintin Wulia will go to Karlsruhe as a resident at ZKM or the

even though it is hardly possible to take the needed critical distance

Center for Art and Media), and so on.

now we are immersed in an abundance of images. As Guy Debord put it: in the society of the spectacle, social relationships are mediated

The technological part of the medium video art, to mention just a

by images. However, there is no need for artistic paralysis.

few, are: from the analog VHS to the digital DVD, analog and digital cameras, projectors, TV, video and DVD players, webcam, cell

Video art, Frederic Jameson says, is not hierarchical, like painterly art

phone, (editing) software, and so on.

is, and it can play out connotations simultaneously. A ‘total flow’ of seamless images is captured by video art, and space and time are joined

And artistic expressions can take the form of single channel videos

together, which makes video art a unique art medium. We cannot give a

projected as a single image, video installations (Krisna Murti’s Video

clear-cut definition of video art, as the expressions through this medium

Spa is an example, which he calls a therapy through the medium of

are too diverse. However, video art as a medium has three components:

video), taped performances (for example Fx Harsono’s Burn Victim,

institutions, technologies and artistic expressions.

which calls to our attention that the victims of the 1998 riots have yet to find justice), online videos (artists working with single channel

There are many different institutions dealing with video art: art

videos can bypass galleries and museums by posting their videos

schools, databanks, galleries, museums, artist initiative spaces such as

online), and so forth. What is expressed is too broad in scope to

ruangrupa and Forum Lenteng in Jakarta; Ruang Mes 56 and House

summarize, it can range from political agitation to the very abstract. A

of Natural Fiber in Yogyakarta; and Bandung Center for New Media

good artwork is ambiguous. Recently, I saw Phil Collins’ work at the

Arts; curators, art critics, collectors, auction houses, journals, such

Singapore Biennale – with the appropriate title The Meaning of Style.

Anggun Priambodo Belajar Miring, 2010

Prilla Tania, Ruang Dalam Waktu #8, Ini Ibu Budi, 2010, video

The Art of Video Art Video art and OK. Video Festival

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Prilla Tania, Voluntarily Dictated, 2010, performance dan video documentation

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Prilla Tania, Beef Wellington With Mashed Potatoes and Local Organic Asparagus, 2011, video installation

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Krisna Murti, Video Spa, 2004/05, Video therapy, DVD, aroma therapy, variable

are arts of shadows. He is the first Indonesian video artist to sell a

Muhammad Akbar. And some others find inspiration in architecture

work to a foreign art institute. In 1999 Fukuoka Asian Art Museum

or experimental films such as Ariani Darmawan.

bought the three channel video installation My Ancestors are Sangiran Man. Some others are influenced by popular culture, for example

Influence also goes the other way around. The Bali-based painter

music videos or TV commercials (video art collective Tromarama sees

Filippo Sciascia worked from video for his Video Painting Kadek

Michel Gondry as their hero); some video makers divide their time

series. VJs sample images from popular culture as well as from video

between art and making music videos or commercials, for example

artworks such as Indonesian VJ collective Biosampler. Like many

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Tintin Wulia Three video stills from a video installation to be shown at OK! Video festival: “The Most International Artist in the Universe” (2011)

I watched this slow-paced, lyrical video three times in awe, but the

Obviously, not all videos are video art. What is considered video

question, what does this video mean, is not the right question to ask.

art surely has something to do with the videos in case, but it also

We should be wary of technological determinism, a technology,

class. Boundaries between disciplines and cultural expressions

for example video, does not determine the style used by an artist.

are only relevant for artists when they have to deal with above-

Technology serves human needs and can therefore be altered to serve

mentioned institutions. Moreover, since Indonesian video artists

artistic needs and these are multifarious. Just as technology has an impact

do not have training in video art, because new or multimedia

on style, so have stylistic needs an impact on the development and use

departments at art schools are still too new, it comes natural to

of technologies. Some technologies have become obsolete, others will

them to work across disciplines.

become obsolete in the future, others can be used for purposes other than their intended design—artists Heri Dono, Jompet Kuswidananto and

Video artworks and other cultural expressions have a mutual

Tintin Wulia do this—, and boundaries between technologies and their

influence on each other. Some video artists are influenced by wayang;

uses might blur, as is happening between television and the Internet.

eminent video artist Krisna Murti says that video as well as wayang

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Krisna Murti, Videohijab, 2011, multichannel video, water pond, 9 min (loop), approx 210 x 1200 cm (screen), commission work of Art Jog 2011

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has to do with social conventions, institutional power and social

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that “the part that collapses whenever the installation isn’t installed is the art.” Video installations, more than single channel videos, require from us an interactive stance: we have to choose how to navigate through the artwork. And this is an embodied encounter—of course single channel videos are also not experienced merely with our eyes, our literal, physical eyes or the metaphorical eye, i.e. the eye of our mind or intellect—and when we accomplish an embodied appreciation of art, we gain an enhanced experience of life. We are alienated from art if there is no bodily encounter within space, as philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty put it: “the world is around me, not in front of me.”

We also experienced this in the recent solo exhibition Java’s Machine: Family Chronicle by multimedia artist Jompet Kuswidananto at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space in Bandung. His installations are tangible, complex and hybrid, i.e. by using mixed media he is able to show a co-presence of multiple times, spaces, narratives, sounds and images. Novelist Ayu Utami inaugurated the show by making fun of postmodern critics’ use of terms like ‘juxtaposition’. Fluid juxtapositions indeed characterize Jompet’s work—and it is safe to claim that syncretism has been practiced in Indonesia long before it became en vogue among French philosophers—but there is no need to overintellectualize it. A close ‘reading’ of Jompet’s work will limit the possibilities to actually engage with and experience his work.

In Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag argues that we need a more sensual approach to art. Too much emphasizes is put on content or meaning of the artwork, and she blames hermeneutics, i.e. the urge to ‘read’ art, for the overinterpretation that tames art. Literary critic Harold Bloom goes further by claiming that the “meaning of a poem can only be another poem.” To paraphrase Margaret Morse: the part of the artwork that collapses when only looking for content and meaning is the art.

Wimo Ambala Bayang Once Upon a Time in China A non-profit fiction video of someone falls down from the sky to China and leaps back to the sky, single chanel video 04:12”, kunming, 2005

My proposal to appreciate video art sensually through an embodied experience so our lives will be enhanced seems to suit the fifth theme

video artworks, some TV commercials no longer have a narrative

Hijacking TV. At this exhibition, Anggun Priambodo’s work Sinema

one of its elements or is seen from only one perspective, for example

of the OK. Video Festival: flesh. The bi-annual festival has been

to promote a product and advertisements often do not display the

Elektronik (single channel, 2009) was presented. This video is critical

psychology. However, around the same time as Kraus diagnosed

organized since 2003 by ruangrupa, an artists’ initiative founded

product. Some claim that some video games are art as well. Also, we

of how life is depicted in Indonesian soap operas, and Anggun plays

video art (1978), sociologist Richard Sennett wrote The Fall of Public

in 2000. The number of participating artists and visitors steadily

can consider some music videos as art, especially those videos in

all roles in this mock trailer (he also sings the soundtrack). Another

Man (1974), in which he claims that narcissism, ‘the vanquishing of

increased over the years. ruangrupa was initiated by artists, but they

which the music functions as a soundtrack to the images. An excellent

recent critical video is Zizi (single channel, 2010) by Muhammad

separateness’, and bringing our private selves into public have had

do not see art as a separate realm from everyday life and they use

example of this is the award-winning video directed by Gustaff

Akbar, which I saw at the Voyeurism exhibition at Guerilla Gallery in

negative impacts on the quality of public spaces in our cities. Video

artistic interventions to provoke social change, specifically to improve

Iskandar for Me and My Boyfriend by Mocca.

Bandung. In this video we can see the Liputan 6 SCTV presenter Zizi

art, though, had to go through this phase of experimentation and

the quality and quantity of public space, particularly in Jakarta, where

– her full name is Zivanna Letisha Siregar – in close-up so we can see

exaggeration. The matter of public space, on the other hand, remains,

ruangrupa is based. And it makes sense that ruangrupa turned to

all the imperfections in her complexion.

to which I return below.

video, as this art form is the most urban of all art forms.

In his early video work, Paik was very critical of TV; he said: “TV

Another video art pioneer is Bruce Nauman, who explored the

Back in 1998 at the Metropolitan Museum for Modern Art in

For ruangrupa it is important to make a link between art and its

has attacked us, it is time to attack back.” This aim is still relevant,

relationships between the body and spaces. Bill Viola is against

Amsterdam, I saw the exhibition Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey, which is

supporting technologies within the local context. Ade Darmawan,

as TV, with its one-to-many, top-down communication, has become

the self-referential tendency in early video art. Looking at the

probably one of the best exhibitions I have ever experienced, video

co-founder of ruangrupa, states: “The context of this [festival] only

even more powerful in recent decades. Recently in Jakarta, Krisna

developments in early video art, Rosalind Kraus sees a narcissistic

art or otherwise. According to Margaret Rose, video installations are

becomes meaningful if we see it as a part of an art phenomena taking

Murti curated an exhibition at Gallery Salihara on this theme, titled

tendency. A danger of art criticism is that a work of art is reduced to

“the most complex art form in contemporary culture.” She argues

place in a specific geographic environment [and Indonesian video

The history of video art began more than four decades ago in New York when Nam June Paik started using his Sony Portapak camera.

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Tromarama, Wattt?!, 2010, stop motion animation with various lamp, 5 min 48 sec

Muhammad Akbar, A Journey to the Top of the Screen & Vanished in the Seemless Horizon, 2011

Tromarama, Happy Hour, 2010, video animation with engraving on paper, 1 min. 56 sec.

art] goes beyond the art world as such, and is both a part of and

turvy world of Lefebvre’s festivals can be connected to his notion

between, on the one hand, what curators say and, on the other

reflection on social life at large.”

of the right to the city. Lefebvre’s right to urban life is a call for

hand, what artists do. Marx also said that “everything is pregnant

creativity: “the need for information, symbolism, the imaginary and

with its contrary.” And this can be shown in art.

The 2003 edition was the first and last festival that had ‘art’ in its

play.” This seems to fit well in what ruangrupa tries to accomplish

name, the name change supposedly signifies more openness to

through their many different activities.

Krisnu Murti writes that an “artist is always faced with the tension

video makers who do not call themselves artists, but that does not

of the choice between metaphoric expression or direct action.

mean that what they make is not art (and the main venue is still the

However, where has the art gone? There is a lot of talk about

Ade Darmawan and ruangrupa seem to have chosen the second.”

National Art Gallery). Agung Hujatnikajennong wrote in the 2007

technology, the spectacle, the lack of genuine public space and

However, this dichotomy is too stark. The relationship between

catalogue that “the festival focuses on ‘video’ rather than ‘video art’,

the need for social change by pragmatic and playful but subversive

art and politics is a precarious balancing act; both art for art’s sake

by presenting video not as an aesthetic medium, but as a medium

means. If we were to make a word cloud of all curatorial essays

and art as politics are problematic. In the former, art becomes

of socio-cultural relevance.” Video is then seen as a medium to

published in the OK. Video Festival catalogues, we would see that the

compartmentalized from life. The latter does not do justice to what

empower. However, that new technologies are easier to use, does

most prominent terms are discursive: ideas, discussions, discourse,

artists could accomplish. What artists could accomplish is the

not make them necessarily more democratic, and neither will it

debates, information, concepts, messages, and so on. However,

creation of new metaphors by showing that what we take for granted

necessarily lead to more interesting videos.

(video) art is so much more than these discursive elements.

is not something that comes from nature but is a social construction.

The French urban sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre

Rony Agustinus writes in the 2003 catalogue that in Indonesia there

the former challenges us to consider history and tradition as far

claims that festivals can create opportunities to (re-)claim the

is a “gap between modern art and modern technology,” which is

more complex; the latter stirs up ideas we have taken for granted

streets of our cities. Festivals—understood from a political

a gap, he claims, that cannot be bridged, “European grand ideas

concerning borders (of the nation-state and the self). At the upcoming

perspective—can turn the world up-side-down, joyous moments

entered the Dutch Indies as ideas without their material base; while

of spontaneity, of intoxication (at least as seen from the

products of European technology arrived as materials without

perspective of normal times), of moments in which we can learn

their ideological histories.” But why should Indonesian artists care

the art of living, moments of DIY bottom-up politics. The topsy-

about these terms borrowed from Marx? If there is a gap, it is one

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The work of Jompet Kuswidananto and Tintin Wulia come to mind,

OK. Video Festival, Tintin Wulia will present the video The Most International Artist in the Universe (2011). Over the years, she has made by hand passports of a staggering 140 different states. With a sense of humor, she tells us about the contingency of citizenship: if august - september 2011

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I took the photo of the video at Singapore Art Museum

Fx Harsono Burn Victim, 1998 (video taped performance at Cemeti Art House)

change is the goal, we, unfortunately, have to answer with a ‘not yet’: public space in Jakarta has only deteriorated in recent years.

Fortunately, ruangrupa’s festival has other goals; in order of ambition: we can learn to understand how our visual culture functions; we can learn to understand and appreciate video art; and the festival can offer a platform to artists. While the number of enthusiastic visitors has nearly quintupled since 2003, time will have to tell whether the first two goals have been accomplished. The festival is most successful in its third goal.

The festival offers an excellent platform for Phil Collins, The Meaning of Style, 2010, single channel video

artists (the number of participants has nearly doubled since 2003). To mention only a few Indonesian artists (participants come from dozens of different countries): Krisna Murti (who recently showed his new work Videohijab in Yogyakarta, which was commissioned

by ArtJog, showing that each person, while looking the same, is different), Tromarama (i.e. traumatized by images; this group consists of Febie Babyrose, Herbert Hans and Ruddy Hatumena, they recently had a solo exhibition at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo), Tintin Wulia, Prilla Tania (she is also a member of VideoBabes and VideoLab), Wimo Ambala Bayang (he is also a member of Ruang Mes 56),

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Anggun Priambodo, Muhammad Akbar (he is also a member of VideoLab). And many, many others have found a platform at OK. Video Festival. The festival offers a forum for artists to connect with each other, with (foreign) curators and (domestic) collectors. In the past year or two, young Indonesian collectors have started to collect video artworks and hopefully they will continue to do so. she would have been born in the same place but in different times she could have been Dutch or Japanese.

I am looking forward to the upcoming OK. Video Festival to experience a great many videos in the flesh.

Just as art is not an autonomous realm in life, it is also not a good idea to see art merely as a tool, for example for social change. While I agree with ruangrupa’s goal and that (video) art can play a part in this, (video) art, on the other hand, can be so much more. And if, as Krisna Murti does, we ask whether ruangrupa has been successful if social 96

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Roy Voragen is a Bandung based writer