Making Art for Malaysia
This post comes at a particularly tough time for me; I’m currently working on Five Arts Centre’s dance performance, Bunga Manggar Bunga Raya, which opens tonight (6 Sept ‘07) and runs through to Sunday (9 Sept ‘07).
Tough because I’ve had little time to concentrate on my other projects - this site being one of them - but it doesn’t mean I’ve to neglect them. In fact, I’ve found that there’s been much room for thinking and reflecting throughout the process of this art-making.
I remember my brother telling me what my mom had said, after reading the numerous publicity material on BMBR that’s been flooding the media - “Why do they have to be such leftists? Is the government doing so badly?” Of course I couldn’t really tell her that we’re not leftists; we’re Malaysians who want to say how we feel about how things have been going in the country. What’s so wrong about that?
And it’s not like we’re not thinking about how we’re saying it… this production costs money, and money, and especially other people’s money, demands a great deal of forethought and planning before you commit to spending that money. You can’t simply spend other people’s money just like that and hope that what you want to ’say’ has a good enough ‘return on investment’ - you’ve got to plan it out properly, think things through, analyze, and finally, execute.
This production is all about analysis, especially on how much we’re willing to ‘invest’ in this Malaysia of ours. Of course, it also brings to light the various ‘returns on investment’ that the past 50 years’ worth of nation building has brought - the good, the bad, and the ugleee of it all, no doubt - from social cohesion and integration, to migration, to crime, to national identities. It’s 22 voices claiming and declaiming what they see going on, going right, and going nowhere in this country of ours.
Art-making in this region was for the longest time a community affair. Theatres were not proscenium, but largely in-the-round, or at least you could pretty much sit anywhere, eat anything, say whatever you want to the performers even as the show went on. In KL, today, art-making is seen as a very elitist activity: because of the venues, the seating arrangements, the stories/plays that have been selected.
You can’t help but observe that the large majority of people who attend performances at KLPac (built by YTL, managed by The Actors Studio) in Sentul must drive there to watch the shows. Istana Budaya, which was once supposed to be Panggung Negara - even in the name there is a very large difference - is also very difficult to reach without personal transportation. Let’s not even talk about the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (although they have been trying to change the perception of their backers about certain classist policies).
Yet not all of art-making has such a tendency. The Annexe @ Central Market has been very populist in their approach to building a community of arts appreciators (being right next to the Pasar Seni LRT also helps). The recently complete annual arts event, notthatbalai, strives to create a space for expression that isn’t confined by, umm, that Balai (Seni Lukis Negara). Art doesn’t belong to a specific class of citizens, but belongs to those who are willing (and daring) enough to carve a space for themselves amidst all the clamor of ownership.
Likewise, Malaysia doesn’t belong to a specific race, or group, but to all the people who want and dare to take ownership of it.
Watch this show. It’s about you, me, and this land we call Malaysia.
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