C for Collaboration and Collective
Dear readers and friends,
How are you? I hope this text finds you well.
I almost forgot how long we have been in this abnormal situation. Two years? It indeed feels like almost forever. And how many of us have to give up losing our jobs, activities, or even loved ones? I hope we can still do our work comfortably, live well, and stay in good health, despite many ups and downs. This pandemic issue, besides weakening our social life patterns, also brings me back to the question: "How can art continue to function and relate to the surrounding environment? Or is it true that art can only emerge if human life is comfortable?"
In 2021, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] will launch a three-year art project under the framework "Alternative Education." The project will explore the role of the art institution and the usefulness of art within society. To inaugurate this project, [YCAM] will present an exhibition titled "Kurikulab: Moving Class" by Serrum, an artist collective based in Jakarta. The exhibition will showcase Serrum's past works related to their activities in Art and Pedagogy. The project will aim not to position the audience as mere observers. Instead, the artist wishes to engage with the public in Yamaguchi who are interested in the education system: students, teachers, parents, and everyone else in various activities such as discussion, workshops, and interviews in a relaxed, open space and friendly manner.
I'd like to talk a bit about it and how it relates to what I'm currently doing in Yamaguchi, because, of course, things will be more accessible and thoughts will be clearer to deal with (not necessarily solved). If we talk about it together, right?
I arrived in Japan, precisely in Yamaguchi, in June 2019. Not many people in Indonesia know about Yamaguchi (I feel that some people in Japan also feel they don't know much about it). Hence, an overview of how the institution works, its cultural context, and the structure of society is something foreign to the institution. When faced with situations like this, I always stick to my life slogan: アートより友達. Friendship is what saved my life a lot when I was away from my native environment. However, this time the case was different. Not long after I arrived in Japan, news of a new virus rapidly mutated and soon appeared in many news headlines. It wasn't long before things seemed to be on high alert, and all the doors seemed to be closing. So goodbye to a pleasant Izakaya conversation and an all-night karaoke session!
Living in a new place during a pandemic is not easy. Especially as a migrant worker, maybe this is not the best time to take on many things that are likely to affect our lives. Rather than despair, I find this to be one of the most exciting periods I have ever experienced in Japan. First, many art activities are forced to change form (from physical space to online) and alter the presentation*1. For some reason, it feels like this online space is still a lifeboat rather than a viable new platform. Second, there is an awkward feeling about our work in the arts, especially in many cases, institution-based work. It's not foreign to us, isn't it, that there have been many exhibitions in the last two years that had to be postponed or cancelled, or in other cases, done remotely.
For some institutions (both private and public), this pandemic weakens indicators of success, including ticket sales, visitor numbers, program numbers, and engagement rates. It feels like we stutter a little because there are a lot of closed platforms. Is it possible that we are only used to one language, such as the one we use at exhibitions? Or is there another way of communicating beyond that? The current situation can be a challenge and an opportunity to explore and develop our artistic work model in the future. How can we question the pull between simply producing an exhibition and shifting it to a project that has value (practically) for the wider community? What can an arts institution with such great resources offer its surrounding community? Based on these questions and situations, I propose a project exploring the possibilities for artistic production within an art institution by drawing on the "Alternative Education" framework.
The Media/Art Kitchen: Open Call Laboratory - An Exploration into Social Anthropology in Asia introduced me to YCAM for the first time. In the summer of 2014, I visited Yamaguchi to see that projects were underway there. The installation was dominated by bamboo, and the space setting reminded me of the Indonesian saung (bungalow) model. And indeed, it is not coincidentally and an Indonesian artist took part in the installation. That exhibition gave a different impression from most of the art institutions I visited at the time, even from some of the YCAM projects I was aware of. It's hard to find the exact term, but I feel there is a relaxed and convivial atmosphere.
This 'Alternative Education' project is based on a straightforward premise: how can an arts institution be a place of learning and a space for sharing resources for the public? Instead of seeing this as a new project, I'm more interested in seeing it as a way to continue the conversation about the ideas that other projects have built on.
While YCAM has been famous for its approach towards media arts and high-technology production, other aspects play a vital role for the institution: education and community engagement. For more than 18 years, various programs have been deliberately designed to engage with the community, whether in Yamaguchi City or neighbouring cities. Also, different educational activities have been developed in various formats to communicate and share knowledge with the public.
For example, some of the projects that I think could fit into the same ideas, such as Korogaru Park (2012) and Korogaru Park Commons (2018), a playground with irregular floor shapes embedded with several devices that utilise media technology. The user (children) can participate and request changes to the playground's form. The projects employ the idea of future learning methods through a playground. The other one is the "Yuda Art Project" (2008), a site-specific project that invites three artists to create works in response to the Yuda Onsen area in Yamaguchi. The last project that could be an excellent example of this approach is Tokui Bank Yamaguchi (2013), a project initiated by Takashi Fukasawa that emphasises connecting citizens through the exchange of intangible property.
Of course, different contexts of time, culture, and relevance need to be considered, but each of these projects seems to share the same spirit as Serrum: to work and communicate with the public in a pluralistic space. These differences and similarities are what I find interesting, and that's another reason I need to invite Serrum to visit Yamaguchi.
Serrum was founded by a group of students from the Department of Arts, Culture and Languages at Jakarta State University in 2006. The spirit of working together was evident in the name they chose, a combination of two English words, 'Share' and 'Room.' As for how the name changed its shape to 'serrum,' which many people associate with beauty treatments, that's another matter. What is clear is that it is difficult to label them in one particular format or medium because, so far, they have tried so many experiments. But if asked to refer to one thing, then arts and pedagogy are the main keywords. Serrum's interest in art and pedagogy emerged only after several years of working as a collective. Previously, they raised many issues, including street art, propaganda in public spaces, and broader political issues. However, as artists and (prospective) teachers, they already have baggage regarding the relationship between the visual arts and pedagogy, which serves as the primary foundation for their artistic behaviour.
Attention to educational issues emerged as the main motor in their work, especially after their first group exhibition in Jakarta in 2014, entitled KURIKULAB. This exhibition presents a variety of experimental modules that Serrum tested to present a fresh learning model. They, for example, collaborated with several mathematics teachers to create 'RUPAMATIKA' (rupa = visual/image, matika = Mathematics)—a project that combines artistic elements and mathematical models.
This laboratory is where Serrum works together with interdisciplinary practitioners to discuss educational issues more broadly. The narratives that arise in education, such as methods, systems, goals, and others, into dialogues that each can share from various points of view. Without being trapped by the unfinished romanticism of educational issues, this laboratory seeks to create artistic experiments in uncovering other possibilities regarding education. (Angga Wijaya, KURIKULAB, Jakarta, 2014.)
I felt this offer of experimentation in fine arts and pedagogy grew stronger after the second group exhibition in 2016, entitled 'EkstraKURIKULAB,' which strengthened the cross between art, social activism, and pedagogy. At this point, I feel it is one of the most outstanding achievements for Serrum in trying to assert his artistic statement as a group. If 2014 felt like a product expo, their 2016 exhibition is more like a grand presentation of the issues that have concerned them to date.
As a collective, Serrum certainly has a lot in common with other collectives that emerged in the contemporary art space of post-2000s Indonesia, after the reform era and as internet technology began to open up information channels. One thing that marks these collectives is their awareness of the need to open up and create a space (literally, a house or room) that their members can use together, either for their group or for other people/groups.
But there is a slight difference from Serrum: the way they develop a sustainable strategy. At that time (circa 2008), when most artists' initiatives still depended on donor funds or grants, Serrum decided to become more independent by building a business unit called Serrum Studio, which focuses on art handling, exhibition design, murals, and design services. By doing this, they are able to survive and keep running the non-profit activities, which are then funded by their commercial work. Perhaps this economic model also shapes Serrum's work model to be more experimental yet pragmatic, without being overly concerned with reports, performance indicators, and so on.
One of the projects that introduced me to Serrum was the Dinas Artistik Kota (City Artistic Service)—a form of urban guerrilla tactics to create murals/graffiti without fear of arrest by authorities. In the project, they designed a graphic profile that mimics government agency style, complete with costumes and work equipment. The equipment always accompanies them when they do mural work (which was considered illegal and could result in a short prison sentence). Simply put, now they look like an official government project.
Another example is their program at the 2009 Jakarta Biennale: Arena, which uses the train station as a showroom. The project is a social campaign promoting safe train riding. It was a common phenomenon in Indonesia until 2014, when the government finally made a new regulation about trains.
"We always work collaboratively with a wide variety of collaborators. In the beginning, the collaborator was the public itself which came from various backgrounds. For example, in 2009, at the Jakarta Biennale: Arena, Serrum made comics as a form of presentation and articulation. The comics are exhibited not only in the exhibition space but also in public spaces, such as train stations, so it can engage with more, various people. And, it didn't stop there. For example, we feel it is needed to directly approach the public to distribute the comics. This is the process of distributing knowledge from the ideas or concepts offered in our work."
Serrum continued these patterns of intervention and involved the public as their collaborator in the following years. If previously the intervention had been carried out unilaterally, in 2014, Serrum staged the intervention and became more open. The modules displayed at the Kurikulab: Moving Class exhibition are their latest interventions.
KURIKULAB (Focused Group Discussion) "KURIKULAB" began as a project for Serrum's 2014 solo exhibition in Jakarta. Selam planned and facilitated several discussions to uncover, compile, and archive fundamental issues within Indonesia's educational system. During these discussions, overhead cameras recorded audio, notes, drawings, and hand movements. The recorded footage and audio were publicly displayed in the same venue, creating the impression that the conversations were still ongoing.
Knowledge Market (知識のマーケト), is an experimental module designed by Serrum, emphasizing learning interactions based on the principles of supply and demand. In its development, the Knowledge Market is more fluid, using space and time to encourage the exchange of knowledge between two or more people. By bringing two people together at random, the negotiation process becomes more open and direct.
Ideal School (理想の学校). In the process of establishing school rules, the student perspective is often disregarded. This project attempts to shift the logical construction. Rather than a ready-made educational space, it gathered images from its students’ perspectives. Dialogue between students will serve as the basis for this project to explore three fundamental propositions: the culture, the system, and the School's physicality.
Speaking of what we're trying to see by bringing Serrum to YCAM, maybe one of the first reasons is that what Serrum does has many similar traits to YCAM. First, of course, about art and education. As mentioned earlier, YCAM pays considerable attention to the educational aspect of artistic production; this intersection might be interesting to discuss how different cultural backgrounds approach the same topic. Second, about the work model and collaboration. The Kurikulab exhibition was the first time Serrum's modules were tested as a package in different spaces, community groups, and local cultural contexts. A conversation with YCAM might give a different perspective. Third, the question of sustainability methods and social capital. Serrum has an attractive sustainability model to study in a different space, especially how to use social capital as part of its artistic practice. I hope that these conversations will become insights to continue the "Alternative Education'' project in the years to come.
In the past two years, I have learned a lot from the many examples of projects carried out by artists and other art institutions related to how we behave in this challenging situation. For instance, Serrum, who has now joined Ruangrupa and Graphic Huru Hara to form Gudskul, decided to turn his office into a production facility for hazmat suits, face shields, and other equipment to help health workers in Jakarta deal with COVID-19.
This kind of flexibility certainly cannot be provided by every institution, but considering things beyond what we are used to, it seems to be a more relevant offer at this time. So, at this point, I imagine how we can create projects that have value for society. How to measure it? Are there other ways to make materials and information already owned by art institutions more accessible?
Maybe there is no 100% correct answer or formulation, because work involving the public as collaborators is not a short-term job but a long-term process. By focusing on efforts and ways to build sustainable relationships, it feels like we can both imagine the future of art after the pandemic.
The Japanese version of this article was first published in artscape.jp