How Important the Role of Curator in Determining a Success of

Performing Art Events

Irawati Kusumorasri,

Nanik Sri Prihartini and Bambang Sunarto

Institut Seni Indonesia Surakarta, Ki Hajar Dewantara Street 19, Surakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Assessment, Curatorial, Performing Art Events.

Abstract: In globalisation era, performing art event is necessarily conducted for multiple purposes, either for

entertainment or business oriented events. In order to determine the success of this event, the role of curator

is very important, although the study of curatorial in art performing still get less attention. Therefore, this

paper explains: (1) how curator works in assessing the performing art for an event; (2) what criteria the curator

used in assessing performing art. This qualitative research design with a case study was conducted. Data were

collected through two instruments, namely interview and documentation analysis. Two curators were

involved as the subjects of the study. The findings reveal that the curators so far worked conventionally

without thinking some curation models, such as self-reflexive, sampling, traditional, decentralisation curation,

virtual curation, artist-curation, and collaborative curatorial platform. In addition, they also claim that some

criteria for performing art assessment were not utilized yet in doing their jobs since they only assessed and

selected any art works as they wanted to without thinking whether their assessment results met the spectators’

expectation and suitability with the event theme.

1 INTRODUCTION

Indonesia is one of tourism countries in the world

which popular with Dewata Island and its traditions,

Javanese traditions and their dances. Although there

are still many other interesting traditions should be

taken into consideration by tourists, such as Toraja,

Lombok, and other parts of Indonesia. In line with

this, performing art is becoming an exhibition which

accommodates artists to perform their creation. It is

conducted annually in some cities, namely Jakarta as

the capital of the city and Surakarta in Central Java.

The city of Surakarta (Solo) was originally born

from Javanese cultures embedding to symbolism and

expressed in the form of art. Regarding this, Solo was

then known as one of the cities in Indonesia that has

rich of traditional art heritage consisting fine art,

traditional Javanese music, as well as other

performing arts. Since 2005, the number of

performing arts in Indonesia has prompted the

government to build the city and make it as the

ultimate pillar. According to the data from the

Ministry of Indonesian Tourism and Surakarta

Cultural Service reveal that in 2018, there were

around 61 performing arts done in this city. Some of

them highlight on the local culture genius of Solo as

its foundation. The increasing number of performing

arts events significantly encouraged the government

of the Solo City start preparing the other resources

and facilities to support the success of those events

through empowering local industries, such as foods,

fabrics, souvenirs, batik, toys, tokens, etc. This policy

purposes to raise income to the people and build a

multiplier effect that synergizes the arts and social life

community.

The various activities involve festivals, carnivals,

exhibitions, and workshops which were then used as

a means of city branding that may support the

development of this city, one of the program is Solo

International Performing Arts (SIPA). SIPA is an

International performing arts conducted yearly in

Solo which aims to promote the city and generate

income for all stakeholders. As mentioned by Jokowi

as a former city major of Solo highlighted that SIPA

propose to promote the city to be well known in

cultivating the tradition and explore to develop the

local business people to sell their products. By doing

so, the local people can be aware to improve their

quality in producing something and creating their arts

to be performed in that program.

SIPA has run for six years concentrating on

performing arts in many kinds of creation under one

Kusumorasri, I., Prihartini, N. and Sunarto, B.

How Important the Role of Curator in Determining a Success of Performing Art Events.

DOI: 10.5220/0008545500660069

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Ar ts and Humanities (ICONARTIES 2019), pages 66-69

ISBN: 978-989-758-450-3

selected theme. Every year the theme is different

depends on the goals of the program which is in line

with the government policy. So, SIPA aims to support

the programs through promoting Solo art heritage for

audiences which is completed with many other

displays such as traditional foods and drinks,

handicrafts, etc.

Therefore, some themes performed deal with the

local city policy such as Go-Green program,

cultivating traditional and local product to art in

globalization era. To conduct that program is not that

easy for several reasons particularly in selecting the

curators. This is due to the routines done the

committee that the invited artist in that event are

usually selected based on their close relationship.

They do not consider some factors in handling their

tasks, such as their educational background, art

reputation, popularity, experience, talents. As a result,

curators are invited as the committee like to invite. In

fact, this is required for curators to consider some

points as guidance to do their job, namely: (1) using

theoretical frameworks in assessing the artists and

arts performed; (2) identifying the needs of visitors to

the arts; (3) creating an innovation combining the

philosophy of the arts with the trending issue.

Considering this phenomenon, this paper presents

a research paper dealing with some points to select

curators as an effort to optimize the results of

performing arts events. It emphasizes on how the

curators work in selecting the proposed art, preparing

the performance/events, writing the literary review of

the art, and evaluating the events to create meaningful

events.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Research on performance art refers to textual studies

that put performance art not only limited to the

essence of art, but also how the art correlates with the

socio-cultural life in society. Solo International

Performing Arts (SIPA) as one of the activities that

facilitates performance arts investigates how

performance art can be related to the socio-cultural

context of society including history, politics,

economics, social, culture, education, etc. Sedyawati

(1981) mentions that performing art is an art that has

been found in later pre-historic times and it has been

developed into some purposes, such as educational

purposes, affirmation of social integration,

entertainment, etc.

By definition, the word curator comes from the

absorption of English "curation" which was later

developed into curate, curator, curatorial and

translated into Indonesian into curation, curator, and

curatorial. According to Webster's New 20th Century

Dictionary, the word "curation" itself comes from the

Lati language 'cura', 'curatum' which means keeping,

caring for, or someone who is in charge of

maintaining, caring for, caring for, and watching over

things like public libraries, museums, art collections

and the like.

With regard to the procedure of work, the curator

goes through several stages, including making an

exhibition / show proposal, submitting a contract with

the gallery and other artists, proposing a draft budget

needed for a show or interest in the exhibition.

Meanwhile, according to Hujatnikajennong (2015),

the way of working and the approach taken by the

curator in reducing an exhibition or show are

different. However, their scope of work still has

similarities, including introductory writing in

catalogues, leaflets, exhibition halls, and giving

lectures or introductory speeches at the opening of

exhibitions or shows. Although this field of work has

long been carried out, the presence of introductory

writing in the name of "curator" in an exhibition is a

new tradition that emerged in 1990 in Indonesia

(Hujatnikajennong, 2015).

Furthermore, Hujatnikajennong (2015) elaborated

in the past ten years, the term curator has often been

used in the context of art in Indonesia. However, at

the same time, several other absorption terms appear

that refer to the curator, namely: (1) verbally "taking

care" means being a curator; (2) nouns are "curated"

which means the results of the act of curing; (3)

"curatorial" adjectives relating to curators and / or

mitigating actions. In contrast, Paul O'Neil cited in

Rugg and Sedgewick (2007) indicates that the use of

verbs to curate in English is actually a new subject

that is still debated.

In the context of art, the term curator and literacy

today has developed far into the broader connotations

of practice. This is supported by a number of facts that

show the expansion of the notion of curators.

Hujatnikajennong (2015) defines that the use of the

word is pinned to people who work to select or select

something, not only for exhibition purposes, but also

for other types of spectacle, such as performing arts

(art performance).

3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Referring to the data analysis results from three

research instruments, it was found that curators

should manage their jobs according to the guidance

suggested by some experts. The findings also reveal

How Important the Role of Curator in Determining a Success of Performing Art Events

that the curators so far worked conventionally without

thinking some curation models, such as self-reflexive,

sampling, traditional, decentralisation curation,

virtual curation, artist-curation, and collaborative

curatorial platform.

Self-reflexive curation deals with doing curation

based on the assumptions and knowledge of the

curators (Hujatnikajennong, 2015). It is developed

from the notion that the role of curator was to take

care of a collection of the objects (Bismarck, 2003).

In addition, it emphasizes that art practices have

moved away from a focus on static objects and the

role of the curator has become similarly dynamic.

This is also supported by O’Neill (2007) who claims

that the curator is no longer simply a career and

behind the scenes aesthetic arbiter, a curator should

be creative and active in the production, mediation,

and dissemination of art. In contrast, this point

seemed not to be identified yet in the field because the

curator did not consider it as one of the requirements

in doing curations. One of the factors noted was the

power owned by the curators as if they could do

everything as they wanted without involving others as

recorded from the interview with one of the curators

as below:

Kami merasa sudah biasa melakukan pekerjaan ini dan

semuanya berjalan baik-baik aja. Jadi, refleksi diri

tidak begitu penting manfaatnya, bahkan terkesan

berlebihan yang malah terkadang terkesan kami kurang

pengalaman dalam melakukan tugas ini.

(WN/12/AGU/18)

In line with this, the curators also act as the central

for many artistic developments as they concern on the

role of the audience. In interactive media art, the

audience is playing the main roles so that the curator

should bring them in the moment of the events and

increase the dynamic situations. The curators should

also become the facilitator of encounters between

audience and artwork (Jonathan, 2001). Data analysis

results from observation reveal that curators to some

extent has included needs from audience that were

gained either directly or from the written requests. It

was notified long time before the events begin and it

came from individual suggestions and comments for

their familiar relationship with the curators. This

finding was also investigated from document analysis

showing that curators played roles as audience

although the pictures were taken when curator watch

the performance art events in other places.

In regard to the collaborative curatorial platform,

the curator deals with social and collaborative

practices. It means the curating process should be

based on brokering the relationship between an

artist’s process of making and the audience’s process

of experiencing. In this case, the curator also has to

deal with the introduction to complex technologies to

exhibitions and museums and the audiences’ rapidly

developing literacy in technological interaction.

However, what it was investigated in the event,

technology, especially digital technology usage was

not yet utilized optimally. It is indicated from the way

the committee communicate to the artists either orally

or using mobile phone. So, the media of technology

used was only in a simple way as stated by one of the

chair committee.

Kita tidak terlalu urgent menggunakan teknologi digital

komunikasi untuk mengundang seluruh artis justru lebih

efektif menggunakan telepon seluler, langsung terjawab

dan bisa bernegosiasi tentang banyak hal, baik biaya,

waktu, maupun program yang akan dilakukan dalam

event pertunjukkan.

(TI/1/JUN/18)

In addition, they also claim that some criteria for

performing art assessment were not utilized yet in

doing their jobs since they only assessed and selected

any art works as they wanted to without thinking

whether their assessment results met the spectators’

expectation and suitability with the event theme. It

commonly happened that what will be served in

performing art events is what the curators like. As a

result, it is difficult for them to release from their

personal art selection even they avoided them as

stated in the interview below:

Saya memilih artis, ya berdasarkan yang saya sukai.

Kalau saya gak suka, gak mau saya memilih karena

kepuasan nanti akan berpengaruh terhadap kinerja

saya dalam menyiapkan event berikutnya.

(ES/10/JUL/18)

Furthermore, the data analysis results from the

observation reveal that the performing art events runs

well and entertain the audience. It was indicated from

the audience enjoyed watching the performance and

celebrated the moment. This entertaining event could

also be seen from the supporting program, such as

traditional food exhibition, Batik material exhibition,

and other local product exhibition. In contrast, the

audience did not think that the event could be used for

other purposes, for instance to support the local and

central government in conducting their programs and

promoting the traditional collections to be a

commodity for global market and participate in

globalization era. Otherwise, the stakeholders still

need some supports to get their potential in promoting

the government program as mentioned by the

participants as the following:

ICONARTIES 2019 - 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities

We need some parties, especially the government to

concern on our products such as traditional crafts of

Central Java, Javanese cuisines, and batik as our pride. I

do really hope that there will be more events like this

which allows us to promote Indonesian heritage not only

in Central Java, but also all-around Indonesia.

(JR/25/DEC/19)

4 CONCLUSIONS AND

SUGGESTIONS

Based on the explanation above, some point can be

concluded as the following:

First, curators have to follow the guidance in

doing curation, such self-reflexive, collaborative,

and technology-integrated curator. They all help

them in clarifying their main jobs as an assessor of

the artist as well as the connector between the

audience and the performers.

Second, the events conducted should support

the local governments program and policy not only

to entertain the audience but also strengthen the

commitment of Solo people to realize the local

government goals.

Third, in determining the theme of events, the

curator should be critically aware to the impact of

the arts watched by the audience, particularly

related to the social and political issue.

Therefore, it is suggested that to conduct

performing art events, the curators should carefully

consider many aspects not only the entertainment

one, but also all life aspects which support realizing

the local government program. By doing this, the

events are not only beneficial for the audience but

also for the society surroundings.

REFERENCES

Hujatnikajennong, A. (2015). Kurasi dan kuasa:

kekuratoran dalam medan seni rupa kontemporer di

Indonesia. Marjin Kiri.

Harris, J. (2002). The new art history: A critical

introduction. Routledge.

O'Neill, P. (2007). Curating subjects. Open Editions.

How Important the Role of Curator in Determining a Success of Performing Art Events