Revitriyoso Husodo has been a cultural activist for more than ten years. He studies at Gajah Mada State University in Jogjakarta as well as at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Between 2000-2003, he was a leader of JAKER (Peoples Cultural Network). He later started a new group, called the Rahayu Movement and since 2005 has been working as the Program Officer for Networking and Culture at the Institute of Global Justice (IGJ) in Jakarta.
On August 4, a new book, compiled by Revi, as he is known, was launched at the IGJ offices. The speakers included Alex Supartono, a Jakarta fine arts curator and activist, as well as myself. Revi’s new book was entitled THE ART OF RESISTANCE. It was a book of photographs that he had taken while helping organize a demonstration against the World Trade Organisation (WTO), during a WTO meeting in Hongkong in December, 2005. There are 89 black and white photos in the book. About 20-30 of these were also on display in a photographic exhibit in the gallery section of the IGJ offices, where the book launch was held. The launch was well attended by the media, with at least two television stations and two radio stations interviewing Revi as well as the speakers.
The collection of photos are good example of activist photographic art, with sections dealing with different aspects of the demonstrations, including a section on the role of migrant workers in Hong Kong as well as labour and peasant solidarity. The reader, or peruser of the book, gets a good feel for the kind of demonstration it was and the range of people participating, as well as the issues being taken up. Although there was one criticism from another activist who was also at the WTO demonstration in Hong Kong who commented that more deeply angry demonstrations of the South Korean farmers was not represented. She felt this was important so that they were documented alongside the more festive demonstrations that Revi had photographed and had, in fact, been centrally involved in organizing.
The discussion covered a lot of issues but the general framework was set by Alex Supartono’s critique that the photos remained set inside a ‘sensationalist’ framework, concentrating on the action aspects of the Hong Kong events. He indicated that he would have preferred more photographs dwelling on the daily lives of the migrant workers in Hong Kong, for example.
It is certainly true that since the 1990s the dominant stream in activist or committed art has been that which has grown up inside the street protest movement. Street theatre, poster art, poems for declamation and songs of struggle have been the dominant form. This has not been the only form with comic satire, both by stand-up comics and comic satire incorporated into traditional and modern drama has also been there. But the later is less classifiable as activist art, being more the work of social critics, still seeking some distance from actual actions – although, there is also some crossover here. In the 70s, a different, and still powerful, form of committed art developed around the poetry and drama of Rendra, including the art work of Hardi and the films of Syuman Djaya.
Revi’s photographs are definitely an extension of this activist, agitational art stream. However, I disagreed with the critical perspective of Alex Supartono, insofar as I thought that this stream, which has developed out of the actual, existing mass protest movement of the 1990s, was totally legitimate in its existence. There is certainly space for other approaches, including more reflective art on the same or related subjects, but there is not, I thought, a case for insisting that those other approaches be included in every collection.
At the same time, there is a challenge for committed art to think beyond the agitational framework. Aksi (street action) art has developed as an instrument of sharpening and deepening the emotional participation of students, workers, peasants and others who have already made the commitment to get involved in protest actions. This is an important form on strengthening art. There is also a challenge to put art to work as an educational or enlightenment tool. One great example of this are the historical novels of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, which a rich in political education and cultural lessons. They are not tools for direct agitation, however, addressing themselves to different levels of consciousness. This means that they don’t necessarily or automatically lead to radicalization of the readership, being also capable of interpretation at the level of consciousness of the reader. Reaching their full potential as artistic tools for radicalization, the novels require discussion and exploration.
I didn’t hear Revi himself speak, as I was outside at the time being interviewed by one of the TV stations.