Present Encounters : Papers from the conference of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1996

Jim Supangkat ContemporaryArt and Multimodernism The term 'contemporary art', the meaning of which has been taken for granted i n international events, shows a hegemony o f meani ngs. References behind the understand ing of this term constitute a discourse within mainstream thinking . This condition has the potential to be a new domination in international contemporary art exhi bitions, which have seen the participation of Third World artists. The term contemporary art has, in fact, never really been defined . However, curators, writers and art historians apparently concur that contempora ry art is related to the development of international art after the 1 970s. In his book Contemporary Art, Klaus Honneff identified contemporary art as a paradoxical change from avant-garde to post-avant-garde. In his opinion, contemporary art has been more open to social and cultural tendencies outside the art world . 'Contemporary Art' he wrote, 'concentrates not only on the art world, but also - wherever it seemed necessary - on more general events and tendencies in society and cultu re as a whole. '1 No doubt Honeff's stance reflects the position commonly taken by curators , art writers and art h istorians in judging and evaluating contemporary art works. In this situation contemporary art in Third World countries has become more prone to misi nterpretation. Considering Honeff's opin ion we can ask - to what kind of genera l events, tendencies in society and kinds of cultures is contemporary art open? As we know, political comment has become a characteristic of Third World contemporary art. Via the international media network, social and political affairs in the Third World are accessible internationally. However, how far do writers and curators in the international art world rea lly understand these 'general events' or 'tendencies in society'? How do they perceive the transformation of socia l and pol itical issues into artistic expressions? I n a discussion in Amsterdam noted Chinese curator Hou Hanru stated that the writers of most articles on Chinese contemporary art concentrate their energy and interest on revealing how the 'unofficial' artists suffer from political pressure , instead of discussing the artists' creative efforts and the cu ltural-intellectual val ues of the work. 2 One way or another these misinterpretations are related to stereotypes and exoticism. I fear this tendency wil l become a set identity in the post-colonial era which , in fact, follows the divisions of the colonial era . Where there was once a distinction made between 'the modem society' and 'traditional societies' using progress as a parameter, now the division is between 'developed societies' and 'not-yet-developed societies', using democracy as a parameter. Misinterpretation in seeing the artists' creative effort and the cu ltural-intellectual val ues i n Hanru 's statement, i n my opinion , has a direct connection t o ignorance o f t he development of modem art in the Third World. This development, no doubt, is rel ated to artistic development beh ind the artists' creative effort. The problem is, is the paradoxical change from avant­ garde to post avant-garde, and the inclusion of socia l matters in art practice - as paradigm of contemporary art - applicable to seeing Th ird World artistic development? In a way , the paradoxical change from avant-garde to post avant-garde could be seen as related to critica l thoughts on Modernism, among others , the discourse of post-modernism. Charles Jencks saw post avant-garde as a new position taken by artists, art critics , architects and the public, based on the awareness that 'the avant-garde, which drives Modern ism forward , directly reflects the dynamism of capitalism, its new waves of destruction and construction , the yearly movements and isms which follow each other as predictably as the seasons'. In Jenck's opinion, the situation has changed , not because the bou rgeoisie and capitalism have 'melted into the air' but because people have begun to understand the dynamics of capitalism and have taken up a new position' . 3 However, recent developments could also be seen , as Hou Hanru suggests, as entropy, when a stable order of matter enters a period of disintegration, and grows towards a tota l chaos. This is then a sign when an order reaches the limit of its own development. A question can be raised , has the Third World also reached the limit of development? 27