ISIF Reception for Student Delegation from Bamberg, Germany

I've noted in past blogs some of the many changes that have swept through Cirebon in recent years - stores, malls, technologies etc. There are also a number of new educational institutions, the most interesting perhaps being the Institut Studi Islam Fahmina (http://www.isif.ac.id/) which is located not far from the state Islamic college (IAIN) on the outskirts of town.

I have been in email contact with a number of the people at ISIF over the years, and know some of the lecturers and students quite well. It is a young institution - the first class college class matriculated only 4 years ago and the yayasan which sponsors it was founded only 6 years ago - but has established an important presence mainly via the internet as a centre for liberal Islamic thinking, research and debate.

I visited the campus for the first time this afternoon (7 August 2012) in the company of my old buddy the pelukis kaca and local historian Opan Safari (who lectures in cultural studies at ISIF) for a buka puasa bersama with a group of students from the University of Bamberg. The event had a number of formal speeches, informal discussions between students and staff, and attracted a range of interesting characters - local budayawan from Cirebon, a novelist and short story writer from Jakarta who had earlier delivered a writing workshop to pesantren students, a Catholic religious leader, a kepercayaan religious leader (wearing an iket) etc. Some of the women present wore jilbab and other head coverings, but by no means all of them, and the students I spoke to were articulate and keen to both listen and express themselves. Opan explained to me later that most are on full scholarship - ISIF employs them as research assistants for projects and pays their fees out of this. ISIF is also supported by a number of private patrons.

I enjoyed speaking with a number of the folk from both Germany and ISIF - a German professor who is making it a point to include Indonesia in the Islamic studies curriculum (his own PhD was on Nabi Khidir stories around the Islamic world), a student doing an MA on interfaith dialogue who conducted research in a Jewish institution in Antwerp, ISIF's rector who did his PhD on Koranic interpretation etc.

There was also a college band made up of Sundanese drum, guitar, terbangan and other assorted instruments that played in interludes- both Western pop and Indonesian pop music. My friend Doddie, another pelukis kaca who is currently an ISIF student, said that this same band has been accompanying short wayang kertas performances he has been giving in recent months.

Wayang golek cepak studies

I am in Cirebon currently - my daughter Hannah is study batik with Mang Katura in Trusmi and I am using the opportunity to do some practical studies of wayang golek cepak, a rod puppet theatre tradition found here an in a number of neighbouring kabupaten on Java's north coast (Indramayu, Brebes, Tegal). This is an endangered art - though the dalang Ki Enthus Susmono from Tegal has had some recent success in reviving it under the label of Wayang Santri.  There are only about 4 or 5 practising dalang in Cirebon -- 3 of them who live in Pegagan, where I am studying. Stories are mostly set in the time of the wali and focus on conflicts between the forces of Islam under Sunan Jati and Hindu kingdoms such as Galuh and Pajajaran. There are also a number of stories set in more recent times (Raden Untung, Prang Kedongdong) and the occasional Menak and Damarwulan story.

I've been working on a single lakon - Arya Kemuning - which was the first story studied by my teacher Dalang Calim - who is one of the two sons of Dalang Marta performing professionally. Marta was perhaps the most famous dalang golek in Cirebon in the 1990s when I was doing my doctoral fieldwork on wayang kulit, and so while this is the first time I've had a chance to work with him, I've known members of his family and his musicians for some time now.

I am enjoying so far the experience of studying a lot - and am making quick progress. The basic storytelling techniques are identical with wayang kulit, though there are a different set of sulukan to learn and also a different sort of lagu prang that accompanies battle scenes. The characters though all new follow wayang kulit patterns - so Arya Kemuning the main character in the story I am doing has the same style of speech and many of the characteristics of Bambang Sumantri from the Lokapala cycle; Arya Kiban has the same speech and movement style as Klana/Rahwana; Jaya Ningrat, the  king of Galuh, follows the patterns of Duryudana while his advisor Sanghyang Sutem is basically a Drona type; Sunan Jati speaks in the style of Samiaji. I have been working daily with Calim and a saron player (who is himself from a puppeteer family).

Calim was initially sceptical about my being able to get the hang of wayang golek. A number of other dalang in Cirebon have attempted to make the transfer from wayang kulit to wayang golek without much success. Haji Mansyur tried to study golek for 2 years and failed, Bahani also made a stab at performing but could not get beyond a basic level and gave it up. I have the advantage though of having had a week of lessons with Asep Sunandar Sunarya (in 2003 at the Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre), a number of lessons with Dewanto (in 2009 in Yogyakarta) and lots of time playing around with golek puppets in my own collection. So I have some understanding of basic manipulation techniques already.

My first lesson with Calim on 2 August involved selecting the puppets, seeing the story demonstrated in an abbreviated form by Calim and trying out a few sulukan. In my second lesson on 3 August I made a stab at doing the whole story myself. I made numerous mistakes of course, and had some trouble with language (it's been more than 2 years since I've performed in Cirebon Javanese) but was able to get through it with enough success that Calim said I was about as good as his own dalang awan. I was so excited that I made a wrong turn on my way back and rode north on my rented motorcycle to Karangampel instead of south to Cirebon! In my third lesson I repeated the lakon. I was more free in my presentation - making some alterations in plot details (not all of which Calim condoned), incorporating topical references with jibes to Calim and the saron player etc. I was also coaxed by the saron player to improvise a dialogue between him and Lamsijan (the local equivalent of Cepot). This was pretty thrilling again to me - the clown Lamsijan is still a new character for me but I am getting the hang of how to perform with him quickly.

I am aiming to do a wayang awan performance of Arya Kemuning at the end of my stay. Pretty ambitious but Calim thinks this is achievable.

Gerard Mosterd and Sumber Cipta

I am in Indonesia now for 4 weeks before a workshop on Asian avant-gardes at NUS in Singapore. I spent two days in Jakarta before going off to Cirebon. The main focus of my time in Jakarta was to use two libraries , Perpustakaan Nasional and Pusat Sastra HB Jassin, to collect some sources on 1940s theatre for my book-in-progress on modernity and the performing arts of Indonesia. I wasn't able to access the sources I needed from Perpustakaan Nasional - the books are on the shelves, but are not catalogued and so inaccessible - while the folk at HB Jassin were courteous and efficient, and even pointed me to sources not on my list that they thought relevant to my research. In addition, I also made a visit to the head office of Asosiasi Tradisi Lisan to discuss future collaborations with the association's head Ibu Pudentia, visited the bookstore at TIM, paid a short visit to the Museum Nasional with my daughter Hannah (it closed early for Ramadhan so we couldn't get into the galleries, but had a good look at the sculptures on permanent display) and spent an evening together with choreographer and producer Gerard Mosterd, who is in the process of creating a new dance piece for Sumber Cipta, Indonesia's most famous ballet company.

Gerard is Dutch of Indonesian descent and has extensive experience as a dancer and choreographer in the European contemporary dance world. His focus in recent years with his production company Kantor Pos has been in European-Asian exchanges - work which has involved him collaborating with some of Indonesia's best known tradition-based and modern artists. He has worked with Sumber Cipta a number of times over the last decade or so, teaching classes and such. The piece he is making now will be part of a triple bill by Sumber Cipta to be presented at the Jakarta dance festival in September. Gerard was supposed to wrap up his work on the piece in July but has decided to stay on through August as rehearsals have not been as smooth as he has hoped due mostly to absences. 

The piece he is creating (I am not sure if it has a title already) is an exploration of freedom - encouraging the dancers to move away from the rigid postures and fixed moves that are customary in Indonesia, whether in ballet or in traditional dance. He is working against rather than with the grain of the music he has selected (mostly Bach, which he says is more accessible). Behind the piece is a concern for the politics of expression, and recent court cases that have stifled freedom of speech (particularly a case regarding an atheist blogger). 

At the rehearsal I attended on 30 July at Sumber Cipta's dance studio in south Jakarta, Gerard spoke with his dancers in English. But he struck me as very much a participant in the local dance scene - not a curious outsider, but someone involved in an intimate way with both the company and the larger dance world it is situated in. After watching the rehearsal, he also invited me to offer feedback to him and the company- thus bringing me into the process as well. 

Wide Open School, Hayward Gallery

The Hayward Gallery at London's Southbank Centre is running what they call an experiment in public education, inviting 100 artists from all over the world to present workshops. I was still in the Netherlands when Jompet Kuswidananto (b. 1976, Yogyakarta, Indonesia) gave his tour of the Great Post Road of Java. But I managed to attend two other sessions - one offered by Japanese composer and musician Makoto Nomura on group composing and musical notation (which used the Southbank's portable gamelan set, illustrated above) and another by Filipino film-maker and performance artist Kidlat Tahimik which involved the screening of one of his autobiographical films interspersed with comments, performances and a small-scale installation. (See picture below.)

Makoto's workshop involved screenings of a number of his compositions (the most interesting probably being an improvisation he did with pigs), demonstrations and explanations about his melodica techniques, and the use of gamelan essentially as a found musical object. Makoto is actually a dedicated gamelan player and composer - but I wasn't able to attend a session he ran with the Southbank Gamelan Players where he directed a small ensemble of about 8 players in some of his notated and improvised compositions. The workshop was very interactive, and I enjoyed chatting with both Makoto and the other participants, who came from diverse backgrounds.

Kidlat's presentation, in contrast, was much more didactic and performative. The film maker took on various personages, changed costumes a number of times, offered anecdotes about his life and philosophy, dropped the names of Important Cultural Figures. He was introduced by someone associate with the gallery (maybe even its director?) who quoted from a memory a quote about Kidlat's work by Susan Sontag. Kidlat turned 70 this year, and his work feels like it comes out of a different era, filled with righteous anger against the colonizers, intent on reclaiming native symbols, exotic and shamanistic. He urged us to embrace our inner duwende, shed the cocoon of culture that limited our self-expression and sprout wings and fly like the butterflies in one of his films (which we did not see). 

We saw only the first part of a three-part film he made with his son (also named Kidlat) over about 10 years in the 1980s, which documents political change in the Philippines and their travels to film festivals and family life. What I liked best about it was that it reflected a choice he made to prioritise family life over film making. Kidlat tells his students that if you learn anything from me in this class you will learn that I am a father first, a film maker second. I have also tried to integrate my role as father with my professional career - incorporating my daughters into my shows and theatregoing - and so found resonances with my own conceptions. Kidlat's choice also evoked some regret in me that I had to spend much of the last year apart from my daughter. 

Tong-Tong Fair

I have been attending the Tong-Tong Fair (formerly known as the Pasar Malam Besar) fairly regularly since the 1990s, and have written about it (briefly) in my book The Komedie Stamboel. This is an annual celebration of Indonesian, Indo and Indies colonial culture that takes place in the Malieveld, a big field fronting the Central Station of the Hague. 

Word on the street has it that Tong-Tong has run into financial trouble as of late in large part due to declining audience figures. The Indonesian embassy now runs its own Pasar Malam (dubbed Pasar Malam Indonesia) in the same space, even using tents that closely resemble Tong-Tong's, charging lower entry rates, and with (people say) better food. 

Tong-Tong has always bordered on the kitsch. Its central tent is cluttered with vendors selling the sorts of souvenirs one buys on Kuta Beach or Jalan Malioboro. Tshotshkes, we would call such items when I was growing up. Much of the Indonesian food on sale is watered down for Dutch taste. Entertainments on offer range from the embarrassing to touchingly nostalgic to excitingly new.

The Malieveld is a pleasant 50 minute cycle ride from my base at NIAS and the proximity allowed me to visit 5 times - more than I've ever been in past years. 

The most important work of art to be presented was We Came from the East by JeckoSDANCE, which combined street dance (popping and hip hop) with Papua 'tribal' dance based on animal movements (pictured above). This was supported by a number of funding sources. The Fair's complained about visibility (low lights, a lot of floor work) and some were probably mystified by Jecko's postmodern collage aesthetic. Dancers were also uneven in quality -some of the men were very strong, while a number of the women had less energy. A workshop with local street dancers showed that Jecko's movement style is not very culture specific- non-Indonesian dancers responded quickly and ably to his choreographies. 

Harrison & Gamelan was a concert programme by Widosari, with a few compositions by American composer Lou Harrison for gamelan and sax and some standard gamelan numbers. All compositions were diligently performed, but did not inspire. I saw the first performance; the gamelan's director Elsje Plantema complained of a rushed sound check and said the second one went better. 

More interesting was the multi-media piece Douwes by the Bandung-based collective Behind the Actors. (Pictured above.) This teater play was based on a Vincent Mahieu short story about a meek husband who murders his overbearing wife and combined film animation, topeng dance, wayang golek, teater acting, keroncong and gamelan. The blend was not always convincing, but provided some food for thought. I got a chance to do a brief wayang golek workshop with the company's puppeteer (Acep) and also spoke to him at the stand run by the collective about his background and some of the choices made. (For example, why the narrator was a buta puppet, why Semar was used for the sukma of the dead wife.) I got to see the show twice, which allowed me to study its techniques - including the interactions of humans and puppets. 

Behind the Actors were designated artists in residence at the Fair, and I also saw them do a 'dangdut' show, which actually combined dangdut and keroncong. (Pictured above.)

Other shows I caught (in whole and in part) included a Pacific island dance troupe, a nostalgic cabaret concert by Anneke Gronloh (pictured above), a batik carnival with songs by the 14-year-old Diah Ayu Lestari from Solo, bits and pieces of the various Indorock bands that played in the Indorock Cafe and the Tong-Tong Podium, Balinese dance by the Dutch company Dwi Bhumi, pencak silat from Maastricht (some well choreographed moved, but ngawur gamelan playing), a concert of nostalgic colonial-era songs and Colin McPhee's Balinese piano arrangements by Duo Merpati, arrangements of some of songs of the same sort for a jazz combo called Parekata and a superb concert by the jazz quartet Boi Akih (below).

There was a lot I missed -- including a talk by Jakarta chick-lit author Ayu Utami, a reading by the great Indo author and film maker Marion Bloem and a dance group from Boven Digul. 

Quality control is definitely a problem - some of the artwork on offer was of a very high standard, other entertainments felt to me to be under-rehearsed and even amateur. Food also ranged from the barely edible to the superb. (My favourite food stand by far was a little outfit that specialised in tahu products, including excellent tahu goreng with an accompanying kecap sauce.)

But the intentions of the Tong-Tong Fair are still good, and I for one can't resist a sing-along version of Nina Bobo. The Fair still struggles in defining itself for and has trouble reaching out to the so-called derde generatie of the Indo community. Perhaps more space should be given to discussion, debate and controversy rather than presentation (and marketing) of product?

Lady Gaga, Anggun

Returning today again to the Tong Tong Fair on the Malieveld of Den Haag- a pleasant bike ride from Wassenaar on a sunny day. I have promised to blog about this annual cultural celebration (which I've been attending regularly since the 1990s) after my final visit this year.

 In the meantime, pop music is making big news in Indonesia. This morning the BBC announced that Lady Gaga cancelled her Jakarta concert due to threats from a radical Islamist group and the 50,000 tickets sold will be refunded.

 And the Indonesian pop singer Anggun, who has been living in France since the 1990s and became a French citizen 15 years ago, represented her adopted country in the Eurovision Song Contest last night with the song 'You and I'. The song was techno pop in a mixture of French and English but the flowing scarves, hand gestures and tight bodice evoked Javanese dance. Merci, thank you, terima kasih Anggun thanked the audience at the song's end. She came in 22nd out of 26.

 So not great news for the pop music world of Indonesia - but interesting nonetheless to see this coincidence.

Gathering of the Gamelans

I attended the first three days of Gathering of the Gamelans, a national gamelan symposium and all-night wayang performance held at the University of York on 26 to 29 April. More than just attended in fact as the wayang was by yours truly, accompanied by more than 150 musicians from around the UK. I'll let others blog about the wayang show (I know my friend Simon van der Walt is planning something) but wanted to say a few words about the symposium (organised by PhD student at the university), which did an excellent job in showcasing recent developments in UK gamelan. I didn't get to half of the sessions due to preparations for the wayang, but what I did see and hear struck me as both respectful of tradition and also very innovative. One of the more startling revelations was a presentation by Bristol-based music educator Andy Gleadhill (titled Employing gamelan to reach pupils who do not readily engage in school music) which revealed that he had developed a simplified version of gamelan (with textbooks, teacher training etc) and had brought 60 sets of instruments made from recycled metal in Bali into schools around the UK. A workshop by Nikhil Dally (“The Song of the Gong”: teaching Javanese gamelan to the early-years with reference to Kodály, Dalcroze & Alexander) was wonderfully participatory, asking 15 volunteers to behave like 6 years olds in learning a simple gamelan piece through song, movement and play.

Also noteworthy (for me at least) was Bapak AL Suwardi's presentation on his instrument making practices. I studied suling with Pak AL briefly in Solo in 1988, and he made me a couple of suling as part of this- but his 'gamelan planet' instruments today are very innovative indeed. Congratulations are due particularly to Ginevra House - who did so much of the organising!