Experiencing Vincent Van Gogh

Through certain style, painting becomes a way of expressing ones feeling. Vincent Van Gogh once said "Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul." 

Now imagine, what if their soul's expression is extended. That's what exactly the aim of an exhibition titled Van Gogh Alive Jakarta.

I visited the exhibition on July 30, although the event is set to end on October 9 this year at Taman Anggrek shopping center, Jakarta. The capital becomes another city to host this exhibition which uses Sensory 4 technology.

An information panel stated that the technology promises us "a powerful and vibrant symphony of light, colour and sound". Through the technology, objects on the paintings are able to move. 

On The Starry Night, swirling clouds are moving. The move is slow enough for us to still enjoy the night scene from Vincent's asylum over the township of Saint-Rémy, France.

But before that, visitors can immerse themselves in some rooms where Vincent's paintings are transformed into numbers of art installations. Sunflowers and Bedroom In Arles are few of them.

In one particular room myriad number of plastic sunflowers are planted. There are mirrors on the wall which reflect the flowers to be seen as it is a garden.
Sunflowers' inspiration came from the gardens of Montmartre in Paris. "The sunflower is mine, in a way." Wrote Vincent to his brother.  

Another installation also lets visitor to get into Bedroom In Arles. Decorated in some 8 meter square area, the installation is originally inspired by the 72 cm x 90 cm painting.

A digital projection of Vincent's paintings become another highlight of the exhibition. As I entered the last exhibition room, japanese music was heard.

Inside, I can see a number of big screens. There are 37 screens that placed both vertically and horizontally which display projection of japanese style paintings—before showing Vincent's paintings. 

At the end of the 19th century some artists in Europe were inspired by the style. Van Gogh was among them.
The influence can be seen through Vincent's painting titled Almond Blossom. 

"There are hints of Japanese influence, suggesting that Vincent and Theo's collection of more than 400 Japanese wood block prints may have been a source of inspiration for this work." wrote exhibitor on one panel.

Out from Van Gogh Alive exhibition, I was also introduced to Theo Van Gogh—Vincent's little brother. Almond Blossom was made as Theo's wife gave birth to a boy named Vincent Willem van Gogh. This Vincent then handed all his uncle's collection to Netherland's government.

Theo himself, was Vincent's life supporter. He spared his earnings so that Vincent can still be able to draw. As a result, along Vincent's last 10 years of his life, the mentally ill painter has created 1.100 sketches and 930 paintings.

Aside from Theo, his wife Johanna Gezina Van Gogh-Bonger also took a distinctive role on making her brother in law's paintings become popular posthumously. Vincent died at the age of 37. 

On Van Gogh Alive Jakarta, his death was depicted by a painting titled Wheatfield with Crows. Sound of a gunshot was heard loudly at the end of video projection. Crows on the picture then seen flew immediately.

Wheatfield with Crows was painted on July 1890, week(s) before Vincent shot himself on July 27 in the same year and died three days after. Six month after that, Theo also passed away.

The tragic life of Vincent Van Gogh today meets its relevance. Mental health issue becomes mass concern. And this exhibition extends the experience of how art can be one's medium of expression. []

Pura

 

Dalam kolom Cari Angin yang terbit dalam sebuah edisi Koran Tempo, Putu Setia mengulas tentang toleransi. Ia menulis bahwa pembuatan aturan yang kaku untuk pendirian rumah ibadah justru memunculkan situasi intoleran, karena bias mayoritas.

Dalam esai yang sama, pendeta Hindu bernama Ida Pandita Mpu Jaya Prema Ananda  itu menyebut dua pura besar yang didirikan di daerah mayoritas muslim. Pertama, Pura Mandhara Giri Semeru Agung di Lumajang, Jawa Timur. Saya pernah ke sana saat dulu membuat liputan booming wisata pendakian ke gunung Semeru pasca populernya film 5cm.

Pura kedua yang ia sebut sebagai contoh bagus toleransi beragama, ada di kaki gunung Salak, Bogor. Sebagai warga kota hujan, saya merasa harus mengunjungi pura bernama Parahyangan Agung Jagatkartta itu.

Suatu pagi, saya bertolak dari pusat kota setelah solat subuh. Perlu waktu sekitar 45 menit menuju lokasi yang sudah ditandai di aplikasi Google Maps.

Perjalanan menuju titik setinggi 800 meter di atas permukaan laut itu melintasi kondisi jalan yang cukup nyaman untuk dilalui dengan mobil jenis sedan. Ada beberapa jalan rusak, tapi tidak sampai merusak kendaraan jika saat menyetir kita bisa menyesuaikan kecepatan.

Pura Parahyangan Agung Jagatkartta berdiri di atas lahan seluas 2,5 hektar. Untuk masuk, kita perlu memakai kain khusus. "Bisa beli di atas," kata Pak Sugeng, seorang petugas kebersihan.

Pak Sugeng dengan ramah menceritakan tentang kawasan pura. Katanya, dia bisa mengantar saya untuk menjelajahi titik lain di dekat situ.

Saya sebetulnya tertarik dengan ajakan Pak Sugeng untuk menambah dua jam kunjungan demi menjelajahi kawasan Ciapus itu. Sayangnya, saya sedang puasa dan akan butuh minum kalau ikuti ajakannya. Saat saya tanya kontak Pak Sugeng untuk lain kali janjian, dia bilang "nggak punya handphone, nggak bisa mencetnya".

Pada akhirnya, saya duduk-duduk saja di tangga dan pinggiran gerbang masuk sambil berjemur. Sempat pula saya jalan kaki ke arah ujung jalan. Ada tempat wisata Kampoeng Salaka kalau kita terus menerabas jalan.

Setelah puas menikmati suasana, saya bertolak pulang dan pamit ke Pak Sugeng. Katanya, kalau mau diantar ke tempat yang dia janjikan di lain hari, saya cukup datang sekitar jam 10 pagi. Dia janji mau memperlihatkan tempat petilasan Prabu Siliwangi. "Ada lima," katanya meyakinkan. []

Class Struggle

A philosopher once said that human history was moved by class struggle. It means that there is one dominant class who always try to dominate another subordinated class. On the other side, the latter one fights for their domination as well.

The idea can be found in some movie titles. Elysium (2013) explicitly confronts the rich and the poor in a futuristic context. Meanwhile Parasite (2019) depicts the fight in recent era.

Lately, I found another film that projects similar idea: The Womb (2022) or locally entitled Inang. At the glance it may seems mereley a horror movie. 

Inang tells the story of one poor women named Wulan, who found support to take care of her pregnancy. Then, she met a couple of rich family who provides her the needs. And unbeknownst of Wulan, the dangers are facing her.

The plot clearly place Wulan as protagonist and the couple on the opposite. As we follow the storyline, the antagonistic acts of both elders reveal some horrific premise—of which I cannot tell you more. 

Before we delve deeper on class struggle in the movie context, here's an interesting facts in regards to why the riches are tend to be vilaineous. The reason is that they have "privilege".

It was based on a research conducter by Paul K. Piff and his team from University of California. They show that there is a correlation between social class and ethics. The title of publication paper, cites its conclussion: higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior.

Another research conducted by Michael Krauss shows that the rich tends to look things from personal perspective. Exploitation to another social class (the poor) was emerged from disempathatetic behavior that was combined with provilege to access resources.

However in the movie, we cannot really examine how can the couple get the financial resource since the moviemaker behind The Womb, chose to only show them on some characteristics that was in-line with the storyline. In facing the ridiculous situation, we must suspend our disbelief. And in terms of film study, "suspension of disbelief" is important to enjoy the movie.

To that end, The Womb was implicitly implement the formula that had also been planted to some titles in Indonesian history of cinema. In Sri Asih (2022), the antagonistic rich real estate businessman exploits the poor slum area residents.

Both of them, introduces us to the theory of class struggle through the medium of film.