Kite Is Art

A kite is not just a play thing, it's an art.

It is believed that kite had existed in China in the 800 BC. However, some cave paintings found on Muna Island, near the island of Sulawesi in what is now Indonesia proved that it may have existed long before that.

The kites in these photos are some of the exhibits displayed by Art Kite Indonesia at the Bambu Nusantara Festival held in Bandung last weekend.

Karinding

This boy is playing the karinding, a traditional Sundanese musical intrument made of bamboo.

The karinding is a percussion instrument. It is played by puting it in between the lips and shaking it with the fingers to produce a rhythmical vibration.

There are two types of karinding: those made of the midrib of kawung (arenga pinnata) palm leaves and those made of bamboo. The former is said to have originated from the southeast of West Javanese area of Tasikmalaya, and the latter from Cililin (an area in the southwest of Bandung) and Limbangan, Garut (about 65 kilometers to the southeast of Bandung). In terms of shape, they are also slightly different. The former is shorter and is said to have initially been made by men, while the latter is longer and made by women. Such attribution is thought to have something to do with the fact that the shorter one (the 'kawung', male, karinding) can easily be stowed in a man's tobacco walet and the longer one (the bamboo, female, karinding) can be slipped into a woman's hair (and thus also functions as a hairpin).

The karinding is not just a musical intrument. In the agrarian culture of the Sundanese people where rice growing and cultivation occupies a central importance, the low decibel sounds that it produces have traditionally been believed and proven to be a very effective means of pest control.

To see how it is played and hear its sounds, here is a You Tube video that I borrowed from TejoFilm:



The karinding exhibition and demo was part the 4th Bambu Nusantara World Music Festival that was held this weekend in Bandung.

Bambu Nusantara World Music Festival (Part 2): GANIATI

Bambu Nusantara World Music Festival did not only stage traditional performace art forms but also contemporary ones like this group who call themselves the GANIATI (Garing Mania Sampai Mati).



Ganiati is a community of students of the Indonesia University of Education (UPI) who are into what may be called as "experimental" contemporary performance art forms. The group was established in 2001 by a number of sophomore students of the Fine Art Department of UPI.

According to their Friendster account (they don't have a website or blog), Ganiati was established with the purpose of "spreading the viruses of peace and the "garing" (literally: dry, but colloquially also means "weird" or "weirdness") and making everybody healthier with laughter and gymnastic exercises".

You may find their statement of purpose a bit incongruous. Indeed, incongruity seems to be [an essential] part of their identity as a group and their art. You only need to look at the bottom photo to see this. Here a man is dressed in girl's gown but wearing a bamboo helmet of their own creation that looks somewhat futuristic by design. If this does not satisfy your curiousity, you may also check my video of their performance at my video blog.



Ganiati is probably one of the art phenomena that can be categorized as postmodern, a condition (?) or age (?) where no subject has any rational means "to evaluate a preference in relation to judgements of truth, morality, aesthetic experience or objectivity." (Postmodernism)

Bambu Nusantara World Music Festival (Part 1): Balinese Jegog

This past weekend (Saturday and Sunday, October 17 & 18), Bandung again became the host of the Bambu Nusantara World Music Festival . 60 bamboo music groups from Indonesia and overseas were invited and performed at this annual festival held jointly by the Indonesian Department of Tourism and Culture, Bandung creative communities, and private sponsors. This year's festival is the third. The first was held in Jakarta in 2007, the second at SABUGA (Ganesha Cultural Convention Center) Bandung last year, and this year it's held in Bandung's Paris Van Java.

This year's Bambu Nusantara Festival is held as part of the Helarfest. As some of you may remember from last year, the Helarfest is a series of events showcasing the emerging creative culture in the city of Bandung. More information about it is available at the Helarfest 2009 website.

In addition to providing a forum for Indonesian bamboo artists to meet and showcase their works, this festival also aims at improving public awareness of the role of bamboo in arts, culture, and environment. Therefore, in addition to music and art performances, it also staged seminars and conducted bamboo planting in areas around the venue.

It was impossible for me to follow all the activities in this two-day packed event. But beginning today I'm going to share with you whatever photos, and videos of festival that I could manage to make.

And here's the first one: Jegog Bali (Balinese Jegog bamboo gamelan ensemble). To see what the performance is like and listen to the music, please check out this post at Bandung Daily Video.