On March 22-25, 2018, Singapore held an arts & disability conference and festival that’s claimed to be the biggest in the Asia Pacific region: the Arts and Disability International Conference (ADIC) 2018 and True Colours Festival, presented by Nippon Foundation, Singapore National Art Council, Very Special Arts (VSA) Singapore, and UNESCO. Alongside Indonesia National Gallery curator Sujud Dartanto, I was sent by British Council Indonesia to attend both the conference and festival.
On the first day of the conference, Australia’s Kate Hood talked about the importance of disability leadership in the arts sector, using her own example as Artistic Director of Raspberry Ripple Productions. Kate sharpened the slogan “Nothing About Us Without Us” to become more ambitious. Is involving disabled people in a creative process, without giving them the chance to really be a part of a work, equivalent to making disabled people mere cheerleaders? Disabled people are the best people to know what kind of creative expression matches their aspirations.
Meanwhile Kris Yoshie, Director of Slow Label (Japan) explained that creative collaboration between disabled and non-disabled people can lead to high quality products. There are non-disabled product designers who act not only as navigators in Slow Label’s production process, but who also follow the ideas of disabled artists and designers. The resulting products are highly competitive in Japan’s creative industries.
Alirio Zavarce is director of No Strings Attached (Australia), a highly-acclaimed inclusive theater group. Alirio talked about creating works of performing arts that put disabled people’s own narratives centre-stage, rather than just using existing stories in the form of dramatic scripts. Many other speakers also shared experiences, including Pete Sparkes from Drake Music Scotland and Sokny Onn and Buntheng Ou from Epic Arts Cambodia, alongside numerous artists, researchers and NGO leaders from Singapore.
On the second day, three workshops gave us a deeper immersion into different fields. Drake Music Scotland showed how they use technology to enable severely disabled people to be musicians; Epic Arts led an inclusive dance workshop, sharing techniques that can work for mixed groups, regardless of disability; while No Strings Attached demonstrated their approach to making theatre with and for disabled people.
Comprehensive Arena and Grand Stage
True Colours Festival was a comprehensive, varied festival: from outdoor and indoor stages showcasing creative work by disabled artists, to a special arena for disability sports and tents that showcased the work of disability NGOs, many of whom who gave information to the non-disabled about the disability world.
From mini talk shows, introductions to sign language, and even a tent to ‘experience’ the sight limitations of blind people in everyday life, there were many opportunities to enable non-disabled people to understand more about the disability world, without being preachy and pity-provoking.
The outdoor stage showcased disabled artists, often music and dance. There was nothing too special on this stage, many artists playing existing songs by other artists. Alongside was a painting exhibition by disabled artists: many were beautiful, though with no element of surprise. Two theatre productions complemented the stage and exhibition: the first by No Strings Attached, entitled I Forgot to Remember to Forget, telling the story of a disabled person who often found it hard to remember small things.
The next theater production, My Home is Not a Shell, was presented by Very Special Theatrics (Singapore) in collaboration with No Strings Attached. Presented as work-in-progress - created intensively during the week before showing - the play explored the feelings of disabled children toward their most familiar environment: home.
The peak of True Colours Festival was a grand performance inside the indoor stadium of Singapore Sports Hub. Many disabled artists from various countries took turns to perform on stage, including a dance duet from Ma Li and Zhau Xiaowei (China), a blind singer who stole the attention at France Got Talent 2016 Alienette Coldfire (Philippines), Tony Dee (Australia), Adrian Yunan (Indonesia), blind violinist Yusuke Anazawa (Japan) and Adrian Anantawan (Canada), digital music orchestra Drake Music (Scotland), and many more.
The production standards, lighting and first class soundsystem made the culmination of True Colours Festival majestic. For those who want to find grandeur and beauty in a show, the festival’s peak is for you. But if you are searching for something new in arts, the show stopped at mere celebration: only a few artists were brave enough to perform original works. From those few artists, Yusuke Anazawa and Drake Music Scotland’s Digital Orchestra deserved to gain attention. Both of them performed original compositions with great expertise to play musical instruments.
Yusuka played the violin with his hands and tambourine with his feet, while Drake used special technology that allows disabled people to play music with limited manual control. In one case, the technology can read the pupil in the performer’s eye, which then produces a sound that leads to a unique music composition.
A Shot in the Arm to Progress
Generally, ADIC 2018 and True Colours Festival left a lasting impression. Not only in the form of amazement at the grand stage, but also embarrassment why Indonesia is not capable of holding a similar event. With the development of arts & disability nowadays in Indonesia - really, it’ll be outrageous if Indonesia can’t provide a similar platform. We might lose in terms of grandiosity and sophistication, but clearly we won’t lose in terms of the achievements of the work.
Many Indonesian disabled artists are not only capable of performing original works, but also creating something that could surprise the audience. There is also the development of inclusive collaborations between disabled and non-disabled artists, leading to works that surpass the boundaries of artistic convention. Ananda Sukarlan, a classical music master with Asperger’s syndrome, is a great example.
Indonesia also has Ade Irawan, a blind jazz pianist. There’s Hana Madness, a bipolar artist who’s currently preparing to collaborate with The Vacuum Cleaner (England). Or Dwi Putro Mulyono a.k.a. Pakwi (Yogyakarta), whose art was exhibited in Jakarta Biennale 2017. Also Faisal Rusdi from the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists, who went around the world exhibiting his paintings.
Not to mention Joned Suryatmoko (Yogyakarta) and his friends, who showed that inclusive collaboration has a power that’s not only meant for drama. In modern dance, there’s the breakdancer Arif Setyo Budi from BBoy Onelegz (Malang); in literature, there’s the Pawon community from Solo.
So it’s only natural that the Indonesian delegates in ADIC 2018 and True Colours Festival feel that both of the shows are a shot in the arm to realise the dream of holding a big event to bring together disability arts with public appreciation. Not to provoke pity and raise donations, but to point out that Indonesian disability arts must not be underestimated.
Of course it doesn’t have to be a huge arena with a grand stage like ADIC and True Colours Festival. The most important thing is the artistic achievements from the disabled artists. Hopefully Festival Bebas Batas (Unlimited Festival), which will be held at National Gallery, Jakarta on next October - projected to become the biggest disability arts event in Indonesia - can realize that dream.
