Art Sonje Center presents 2018 Art Sonje Project #2: Songs for the People: Music and Politics in Indonesia, which explores the complex relationship between music and politics in which the two are deeply connected to the idea of mass and power. The exhibition introduces some projects in which music becomes part of the battle for political power, whether in an actual political arena or through politics as a spirit of resistance. In many stories, we hear that artists and musicians maintain the hope that their works can trigger resistance or change in society. More and more, the idea of engagement in arts and politics refers to the notion of activism, through which artists actively become part of the social political movement.

In Indonesia, the music scene has always been connected to the country’s political situation, in one way and another, particularly since politics also strongly relates to the idea of identity. In the 1960s, Soekarno, Indonesia’s first President, banned one of the most famous bands, Koes Plus, arguing that their music was not a representation of Indonesia’s identity and was strongly connected to imperialist music. Only after he fell from his reig

n, tragically, those bands started to play again leading to the formation of today’s Indonesian music industry. This story then inspired ruangrupa to create a project called The Kuda: The Untold Story of Indonesian Underground Music in the 70’s. It is a fictional band formed under Soeharto (second Indonesia’s President) to highlight the shift of social political context of Indonesian society from Sukarno’s Old Order to Soeharto’s New Order. The band was actively involved in first generation of student’s movement during 1970s, and their songs strongly reflected their engagement with Jakarta as an urban landscape; they talked about the face of a big city (Jakarta), the workers, also the students and people who could not express themselves well. They also took account into the newly ended Sukarno era, the shifting power or interregnum from Sukarno to Soeharto, which was one of the most important eras that shaped the social and political discourse of Indonesia today.

One example of seeing politics as context is a project by a group of women who spent years in prison after the political turmoil of 1965 because they were suspected to be connected to the communist party. During their time in prison, they wrote songs to overcome trauma and to heal wounds. In 2015, they created a choir with other family members of the survivors, named Dialita, and started to sing their songs and even released an album. They perform not only to speak up through their songs but also can be seen as a memoir to the women’s movements and activism that had been shut down during the New Order. Political chaos in Indonesia during 1965 and the years after became the context of this musical project. For this exhibition Kartika Jahja creates an installation that captures their concert performances and documents their interviews and everyday life.

Considering politics as content, it is interesting to compare how popular music and the underground music scene cope with social and political themes. In pop music, there are some stories about how big music stars have a strong “political bargain power” which has led some of them to enter real political battles. LARAS, a music research collective, will examine narratives on these subjects, bringing up interesting facts and stories about how musicians gain their political position and how they handle the power of their fame and leadership. Their research focuses on two figures: one is a rock star who is popular for his “songs of the people” (lagu untuk rakyat), Iwan Fals, with his surrounding scene including Kantata Takwa; the other is Indonesian folk music star Rhoma Irama, who was initially connected with the Islamic wave, and took his music career as a way to expand Islamic views in society (dakwah).

While popular music offers the possibility of reaching a broader audience, the movement within the underground music scene is also interesting to observe since there are a lot of bands that express their vision on political issues. Melancholic Bitch is a music collective from Yogyakarta. They were students from the University of Gadjah Mada who grew up in the generation facing the battles of the Reformation Era in 1998. Some of them used to be part of student movements in the mid 1990s to the early 2000s, and this involvement is shown in their lyrics, particularly in their latest album, NKKBS Bagian Pertama. This album is dedicated as a memoir to an era, looking back on the New Order’s regime and how those ideological policies actually had a strong impact on the life of families in Indonesia.

Alia Swastika has worked as a program director for Ark Galerie, Yogyakarta, Indonesia since 2008 and is actively involved as a curator, project manager and writer in a number of international exhibitions. With Suman Gopinath, she was the co-curator of the Jogja Biennale XI, Shadow Lines: Indonesia Meets India (2011), and was one of the co-artistic directors for the Gwangju Biennale IX (2012): Roundtable. She also participated as a curator of the special exhibition of Indonesian artists in the 2012 edition of Art Dubai. Recently she curated Indonesian contemporary exhibition projects during Europalia Arts Festival where she presented Indonesian artists in SMAK, M HKA, Grand Hornu in Belgium and Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.As the director of Jogja Biennale 2015, she is a member of the International Biennale Association Board, and she recently founded ‘Study on Art Practices’, a platform for research on the contemporary art in Indonesia.

Ruangrupa is an artists’ initiative established in 2000 by a group of artists in Jakarta. It is a not-for-profit organization that strives to develop artistic ideas within the urban context and the larger scope of the culture, by means of exhibitions, festivals, art labs, workshops, research and journal publication.

Ruangrupa has been participated in many international exhibitions such as Gwangju Biennale, Asia Pacific Triennale, São Paulo Biennale and also part of the art collective exhibition held in October 2017 at Center Pompidou, Paris.

Kartika Jahja is better known as her nickname, Tika. She is an independent singer-songwriter with the band Tika and The Dissidents as well as an activist on the issue of gender and sexuality. Outside of music and activism, she is also a published writer, actress and entrepreneur. In November 2016, her name was announced on the list of “BBC 100 Women” which is a list of the 100 most inspiring and influential women from around the globe. In August 2015, she founded Yayasan Bersama Project with Dr. Rebekah Moore, which aims at promoting gender justice through different media such as music, arts and pop culture. Tika is also an active member of female collectives Kolektif Betina and Mari Jeung Rebut Kembali.

Dialita is a choir that is made up of women whose parents, relatives and friends were captured, tortured and exiled during the 1965/1966 communist purge in Indonesia. Dialita (an abbreviation of “Di Atas Lima Puluh Tahun” or Above 50 Years Old) choir members choose to tell their stories by singing, and together, co-initiate social change, co-constructing new meanings of health and resilience. In working with the women who bear the mark of the 1965/1966 communist purge in Indonesia, we have been humbled by their resolve in telling their stories.

Melancholic Bitch is a band formed in 1999 by Ugoran Prasad and Yosef Herman Susilo. They play mostly rock style music with the highlight of song’s lyrics that show their interest in philosophy, literature, history and other subjects. They have released four albums in last 20 years; Anamnesis, The Ballads of Joni and Susi, Re-Anamnesis, and NKKBS (First Part). Their albums were often selected as best albums by Rolling Stones Indonesia and other magazines. Current members of Melancholic Bitch are Ugoran Prasad, Yosef Herman Susilo, Richardus Adita, and Yennu Ariendra.

LARAS is a study community that aims to look at the role of music and its entanglement in society. In observing music in society, LARAS brings about participation and involvement from scholars, researchers, and arts practitioners alike by ways of discussions, presentations and exhibitions.

<Curator&Artist Talk: Alia Swastika&Reza Afisina>
Dates: Saturday, 3 March, 2018, 4 pm
Venue: Hanok
Speakers: Alia Swastika(Curator), Reza Afisina(ruangrupa)
* Admission: Adult 5,000KRW Student 3,000KRW

** English-Korean translation is provided

Art Sonje Center holds a Curator & Artist Talk in conjunction with 2018 Art Sonje Project #2: SONGS FOR THE PEOPLE: Music and Politics in Indonesia at 4 pm on Saturday, March 3 at Hanok.
Alia Swastika, the curator of this exhibition, will have a conversation with Reza Afisina, a member of ruangrupa, an artist group in Jakarta. Through this conversation, the music scene of Indonesia in 1970s, one of the most important eras that shaped the social and political discourse of Indonesia today, will be discussed. Moreover, the complex relation between music and politics in the shift of social political context of Indonesian society from Sukarno’s Old Order to Soeharto’s New Order will be explored through highlighting on The Kuda, a fictional band formed by ruangrupa.

●About the Speakers

Alia Swastika has worked as a program director for Ark Galerie, Yogyakarta, Indonesia since 2008 and is actively involved as a curator, project manager and writer in a number of international exhibitions. With Suman Gopinath, she was the co-curator of the Jogja Biennale XI, Shadow Lines: Indonesia Meets India (2011), and was one of the co-artistic directors for the Gwangju Biennale IX (2012): Roundtable. She also participated as a curator of the special exhibition of Indonesian artists in the 2012 edition of Art Dubai. Recently she curated Indonesian contemporary exhibition projects during Europalia Arts Festival where she presented Indonesian artists in SMAK, M HKA, Grand Hornu in Belgium and Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. As the director of Jogja Biennale 2015, she is a member of the International Biennale Association Board, and she recently founded ‘Study on Art Practices’, a platform for research on the contemporary art in Indonesia.

Reza Afisina is a member of raungrapa, an artists’ initiative established in 2000 by a group of artists in Jakarta. ruangrupa is a not-for-profit organization that strives to develop artistic ideas within the urban context and the larger scope of the culture, by means of exhibitions, festivals, art labs, workshops, research and journal publication. ruangrupa has been participated in many international exhibitions such as Gwangju Biennale, Asia Pacific Triennale, São Paulo Biennale and also part of the art collective exhibition held in October 2017 at Center Pompidou, Paris.

Special Feature: The Kuda Project by ruangrupa
Associates: Kartika Jahja and Dialita, LARAS (Studies of Music in Society), Melancholic Bitch