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By the number of believers, Indonesia is the new center of gravity of Islamic cultures. "Java - Art Energy" is the first major exhibition in France dedicated to Indonesian contemporary art. Until February 24, 17 Indonesian artists are displaying their works - including five specially created for the Institute of Islamic Cultures (ICI) in Paris - in the form of photographs, paintings, installations, videos, comics to question urbanization. wild, Islam and society, colonialism, nature and spirituality. Interview with Stéphanie Chazalon, General Director of the Institute of Islamic Cultures.
RFI: What is the promise of Java - Art Energy ?
Stéphanie Chazalon: The Java Art Energy exhibition is the first incursion of the Institute of Cultures of Islam (ICI) which is an establishment of the City of Paris towards the new center of gravity of these cultures of Islam, it is to say Asia. So, we went to Indonesia which is the first Muslim country in the world by the number of believers and more precisely towards the island of Java, the artistic center of this gigantic archipelago where really concentrates the cultures of Islam.
Has Indonesia become the center of Islamic culture?
It's a center. I was talking about Asia as a new center of gravity for Islamic cultures. Afterwards, in Indonesia, which is the first Muslim country in the world, we focused on the island of Java, because it was complicated to treat all the diversity of Indonesia, according to the count, there is between 13,000 and 17,000 islands. Java is really the artistic and cultural center of Indonesia through which most artists travel for their training or exhibition.
How is the Java - Art Energy exhibition unpublished?
This is the first group exhibition of this scale on contemporary Javanese art in Paris. The institute ICI tries to show the diversity of Islamic cultures around the world. Indonesian art is not well known in Paris, so it was important for us to be able to value the creation, vitality and dynamism of this artistic creation in Java.
Here we are at the Institute of Islamic Cultures. How is this contemporary art that uses Western media such as photography, painting, street art, is it related to Islam?
We see in this exhibition that artists find their inspiration in a lot of hot topics for Java and for Indonesia. There is of course, for example, the prominent place of Islam in the public space. There is also the subject of the rise of radical groups that Indonesia is experiencing today, but there are also many other topics: the over-exploitation of natural resources, the preservation of the environment, a section in exhibition speaks of nature and spirituality. And then, by contemporary art, the artists look back on Indonesia's past, especially the past of Dutch and Japanese colonization, and also all this era of dictatorship with the communist or presumed communist massacre in the years 1965- 67.
What does Tintin do in an exhibition on Indonesian art?
This work by the artist Adhya Ranadireksa is called Si Tintin was born in Indonesia . You will discover in other spaces of the exhibition how the artist hijacks the blankets of Hergé that are known throughout the world and in particular in Indonesia where Hergé is very popular, to pass messages on his fears about the rise of a radical Islam.
This is the first exhibition in France on Indonesian contemporary art. In Indonesia, the first museum of contemporary art opened in November 2017. What has the MACAN changed for artists?
Contemporary art is extremely dynamic in Java and it is important that there is an institutional place that can recognize the place of this art. And there is also a biennial of very important contemporary art that has been partially initiated by artists present here in Paris.
► Java - Art Energy, exhibition on Indonesian contemporary art at the Institute of Cultures of Islam (ICI) in Paris, until February 24, 2019, accompanied by a very rich program of performing arts (dance , puppets, music, shadow theater), cinema, debates, conferences, readings ...