After a 72-hour performance carried out by the participants of Ambangan art project, a Focus Group Discussion was held on Tuesday, 17 March 2020. The discussants are Helly Minarti and Gatari Surya Kusuma. Helly Minarti is an independent curator. She completed her doctoral studies at Roehampton University, London, England. Gatari Surya Kusuma is a researcher who focuses on exploring learning methods in collective work.

The discussion was originally planned as a public discussion that was open to the general public. However, with the situation that is not conducive, and to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, public discussion activities are converted into a closed Focused Discussion Group and was held only among the curators of Ambangan art project and the discussant.

Manshur Zikri as curator of Cemeti – Institute for Art and Society opened the discussion. Zikri gave an introduction about the idea of “gotong royong” or mutual cooperation, which is now widely raised in research and art events. He mentioned that the gotong royong as a term tends to be unexplainable or indefinite. To understand it, one must experience it first. The Ambangan art project is seen as an attempt to understand that idea. Furthermore, Anggraeni Dwi Widhiasih and Prashasti Wilujeng Putri had the opportunity to present their ideas from the Ambangan project, and how the process of developing this work. They explained the practice in Milisifilem Collective since this project was also an attempt to re-read the background of the work patterns that formed the educational platform in Forum Lenteng, one of which was the Milisifilem Collective.

Gatari Surya Kusuma continued the discussion. This year, she had the chance to observe the practices in 69 Performance Club and Milisifilem Collective. According to her, the strong spirit of the platform in the Forum Lenteng is learning together. Two things are always on the platform at Forum Lenteng; intuition and sense, as well as disciplining the body. Gatari connects the notion of intuition and sense to the constructions that are constantly being built in the heads of each participant. The spontaneity and “intuition” that are produced become the result of the honed construction habits.

Meanwhile, Gatari connects the idea of disciplining the body to the learning process of mutual criticism. Such a learning pattern requires the participants to see first hand what is happening on the field and select the visual when the produce sketches in public spaces, such as Jakarta Kota Station, Pasar Minggu Market, and Sunda Kelapa Harbor. Ambangan art project is also a form of selection, especially by establishing scheduled rules of eating, sleeping, and pasting the sketches to the wall. This project is also a form of disciplining the body because there is awareness to record the surroundings. Here, by creating this activity, the participants of the Ambangan project undertook the creation of classrooms.

Then, Helly Minarti said that it would be interesting if there is further discussion about the incision between “space” and “place” in this project. She emphasized how the concept of shared learning in the Forum Lenteng, in Jakarta, was moved to a room that had its own values and narratives, such as the Cemeti Gallery. It would be interesting to reconcile that narrative with the narrative of Ambangan itself. In looking at the Ambangan project, she questioned what kind of collectivity is in this Ambangan project, as well as how knowledge can be obtained from the everyday.

Video documentation of this discussion will be uploaded on the YouTube channel of 69 Performance Club and Cemeti – Institute for Arts and Society.

Year
2020

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

On Saturday 07/03/2020, a discussion entitled “Sketches and Vignettes, A Note” was held with Mahardika Yudha, a curator and researcher, and moderated by Dini Adanurani. Regarding the ongoing sketch exhibition of Raras Umaratih “Mengintip Dokumen2 Hitamputih”, Mahardika traced the archive of sketches published in the mass media in the 1950s. Some art and culture magazines carry these sketches specifically as work of art. Beyond that, many public magazines and newspapers contain sketches made specifically as documentation of mass events. These gestures emerged at a time when young artists after Sudjojono, including Oesman Effendi and Basuki Resobowo, were actively discussing the discourse on the identity of Indonesian painting.

Year
2020

Jakarta, Indonesia

Milisifilem Collective held Raras Umaratih’s first solo exhibition entitled Solo Exhibition of Raras Umaratih’s Sketches “Mengintip Dokumen2 Hitamputih”. It’s open from 29 February to 30 March 2020 at Forum Lenteng, Jakarta. Otty Widasari, the curator of the exhibition, said that “Seeing ‘Dokumen2 Hitamputih’ (Black-White Documents) is a pilgrimage project to see the culture of the city which has a history as a melting pot for migrants. ‘Hitamputih’ for Raras Umaratih is not just pointing at the dominant color of her sketches, but it is also a representation of her “wandering eyes” as a long-term traveler in Berlin.”

Raras Umaratih, born in Malang, 5 June 1999, is an artist who is pursuing Fine Arts at the Weißense Kunsthochschule, Berlin, Germany. Since 2018 she active in Milisifilem Collective. Raras often sketches from everyday stories around her. Previously, together with Dhanurendra Pandji and Robby Ocktavian, Raras had made a short film titled Cut (2018). At present, besides continuing to make sketches, Raras is trying to explore etching printing techniques.

This exhibition is the fourth solo exhibition of the members of Milisifilem Collective. The exhibition was held as one of the results of a series of film production learning activities through the practice of visual experimentation initiated by Forum Lenteng since September 2017 in Milisifilem Collective platform. In this exhibition, Raras exhibited around 220 works using various media.

This exhibition is a continuation of Milisifilem Collective method to share experiences with the public about alternative approaches in developing art as a means of education and methods for building awareness of cultural activism. This event is open to the public and is free of charge.**

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Daily Exhibition:
29 February – 31 March 2020
13:00 – 21:00 GMT+7
at Forum Lenteng, Jl. H. Saidi No 69 RT 007 RW 05, Tanjung Barat, Jagakarsa, South Jakarta

Year
2020

Jakarta, Indonesia