Catatan tentang Pameran Kultursinema #4: "Takdir Huyung"
Acara pembukaan pameran KULTURSINEMA #4 menjadi salah satu rangkaian yang meramaikan ARKIPEL Penal Colony – 5th Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, 2017. Acara ini diselenggarakan pada tanggal 18 Februari, pukul 19:00 WIB, di Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Jakarta, dihadiri 138 pengunjung (menurut catatan di buku tamu).
Mahardika Yudha, kurator pameran Kultursinema #4: Takdir Huyung.
Mahardika Yudha, selaku kurator pameran, menyebutkan dalam kata sambutannya bahwa pameran tersebut penting sebagai salah satu wadah pengumpulan dan pembacaan kembali arsip-arsip penting sinema guna membuka akses masyarakat terhadap ilmu pengetahuan mengenai sejarah dunia perfileman di Indonesia. Memilih tokoh Huyung sebagai isu yang dibingkai ke dalam pameran itu sendiri adalah upaya untuk merefleksikan dan merepresentasikan secara tepat perkembangan sinema Indonesia. Menurut Yudha, sosok Huyung sesungguhnya juga perlu dianggap memiliki kontribusi dalam menentukan konstruksi [baru] sistem perfileman bangsa ini. Melalui gaya penyuntingan filem yang sistematis, teoritis, dan terukur, Huyung adalah salah satu orang yang juga memunculkan nuansa baru dalam dunia perfileman Indonesia pada masanya. Terkait dengan tema ARKIPEL sendiri, yakni “Penal Colony”, sinema Indonesia dan identitas Indonesia dapat dimunculkan kembali melalui penyajian filem-filem Huyung, yaitu bagimana menempatkan fungsi filem yang tidak hanya sebagai hiburan, tetapi juga sebagai pendidikan, alat perjuangan, serta politik (propaganda).
Pada pameran KULTURSINEMA #4 “Takdir Huyung”, pengunjung dapat menikmati pameran melalui dua jenis instalasi: tayangan filem yang terpasang di bagian dalam dan luar studio Forumsinema, dan potongan-potongan arsip buku hingga artikel koran mengenai Huyung yang ditempel di dinding studio.
Di bagian dalam studio Forumsinema, pengunjung dapat menyaksikan karya filem yang diproyeksikan ke dua layar yang disusun bertumpuk sehingga menghasilkan semacam efek “superimpose”. Tapi di antara layar tersebut, terdapat instalasi TV yang direbahkan di atas semacam meja sehingga layarnya menghadap ke atas, menampilkan visual-visual yang mengesankan efek mekanisme digital. Di layar yang pertama, pengunjung dapat menikmati menonton filem-filem fiksi karya Huyung, antara lain “Antara Bumi dan Langit” (atau dijuduli “Freida” setelah dilakukan penyensoran). Filem ini secara garis besar menceritakan kesenjangan yang muncul antara masyarakat peribumi ataupun masyarakat asing yang memicu timbulnya friksi-friksi yang didasari perbedaan prinsip. Filem ini sempat mendapat penyensoran negara akibat adegan ciuman yang menimbulkan protes publik sehingga mengarah pada wacana perubahan judul dari “Antara Bumi dan Langit” menjadi “Freida” yang akhirnya terrealisasikan setelah sang penulis , Armijn Pane, memutuskan untuk keluar. Sementara itu, pada layar yang kedua (yang ada di balik layar pertama), pengunjung dapat menikmati filem-filem dokumenter produksi Berita Film Indonesia (BFI) kisaran 1946-1949 yang telah dihimpun kembali dan diinterpretasi secara baru oleh kurator dan timnya sehingga dapat memberikan suatu bentuk dan pengalaman visual yang baru pula kepada penonton masa kini. Huyung sendiri bersama rekan-rekan semasanya terlibat di dalam BFI.
Dari segala bentuk tata cara secara keseluruhan instalasi di dalam studio Forumsinema, kita bisa menyimpulkan bahwa tayangan-tayangan arsip gambar bergerak ini mencoba menyajikan lanskap yang merefleksikan metafora perkembangan filem dari era analog ke era digital, dengan cara mengungkap mekanisme kerja medium seluloid lewat teknologi digital—yang mana hal itu terlihat pada tampilan video di monitor TV yang ada di tengah-tengah dua layar yang menggantung itu. Kehadiran instalasi TV itu pun seakan merepresentasikan “gap” antara isu/konten/wacana yang dibingkai dalam filem-filem yang diproyeksikan ke dua layar tersebut.
Di ujung ruang studio Forumsinema, terbaring sebuah TV beserta headphone-nya yang memutarkan sebuah karya fiksi lain yang juga digarap oleh Huyung, berjudul Gadis Olahraga (1951). Namun, dalam instalasi ini, narasi hanya dimunculkan dalam bentuk tulisan naskah dialog dan audio.
Sedangkan di bagian luar studio, terdapat instalasi tiga layar yang disusun saling membelakangi (membentuk segitiga) dan digantung di langit-langit hall A1 Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem sehingga tampak melayang. Ketiga layar itu, masing-masing menampilkan filem yang secara diskursus saling berhubungan, yaitu Indonesian Calling (1946) karya Joris Ivens, Nippon Present (1945) karya Jaap Speyer, dan Calling Australia (1943) karya Eitaro Hinatsu. Instalasi filem tersebut merefleksikan hubungan yang muncul antar filem yang satu dengan yang lainnya, bahwa pada masa itu, kemunculan filem Indonesia Calling memicu Huyung untuk menciptakan filem Calling Australia. Kemunculan filem Nippon Present juga serta merta menimbulkan efek relevansi antar ketiga filem tersebut.
Semengara itu, potongan-potongan teks yang dipilah dari arsip kumpulan tulisan Huyung atau untuk/tentang Huyung maupun kritik terhadap Huyung, yang ditulis pada periode 1945-1952, di susun secara acak di dinding sisi luar studio. Instalasi teks ini tampak menarik minat pengunjung untuk menangkap dan merangkai satu demi satu halaman sehingga mobilitas pengunjung pameran terasa lebih dinamis.
Beberapa pengunjung pameran yang saya ajak berbincang mengemukakan pendapat bahwa program pameran Kultursinema ini penting untuk masyarakat, terutama para pegiat perfileman Indonesia agar dapat ikut serta dalam mengembangkan minatnya serta mempertahankan nilai-nilai historikal maupun estetika yang disajikan oleh dunia perfileman Indonesia. ***
Notes on exhibition of Kultursinema #4: "Fate of Huyung: Why Has He Left for the South?"
The opening for the exhibition KULTURSINEMA #4 becomes one of the event to celebrate ARKIPEL Penal Colony – 5th Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, 2017. This event was held on February 18th, 19:00 in Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Jakarta, attended by 138 visitors.
Mahardhika Yudha, as the exhibition curator, mentioned in his welcoming speech that the exhibition is one of the essential platform to collect and read important cinema archives to open public access for knowledge regarding Indonesian film history. Choosing Huyung as the issue framed in the exhibition is an effort to accurately reflect and represent the development of Indonesian cinema. According to Yudha, Huyung as a figure deserves to contribute in deciding the [new] construction of this nation’s cinema. Through his film editing which was systematic, theoretic, and calculated, Huyung becomes one of the people to bring out new nuance in Indonesian film during its time. Regarding ARKIPEL’s theme, which is “Penal Colony,” Indonesian cinema and Indonesian identity can be brought up by the screening of Huyung’s films, basically by placing film not only as an entertainment, but also an instrument of education, tools for fighting, and politics (propaganda).
Mahardika Yudha, the curator for the exhibition of Kultursinema #4: Fate of Huyung.
On the exhibition KULTURSINEMA #4 “Fate of Huyung: Why Has He Left For the South?”, visitors can enjoy it through two kind of installations: film screening installed outside and inside the Forumsinema studio and snippet of book and newspaper archives about Huyung which is attached on the studio wall.
Inside the Forumsinema studio, visitors can watch the film which was projected to two screens arranged to stack each other to create a “superimpose” effect. But between those screens, there is a TV installation laid down on some kind of table so the screen face upward, showing visuals that give impression of digital mechanism effect. On the first screen, visitors can watch fictional movies by Huyung, one of them is “Antara Bumi dan Langit” (alternatively titled “Frieda” after some censorship). The movie, in short, tells about the inequality that comes up between indigenous people (pribumi) and foreigners which triggers frictions based on difference in principle. The film has been subject to state censorship because there was a kissing scene which triggers public protest so the title was changed from “Antara Bumi dan Langit” into “Frieda” which finally realized after the writer, Armijn Pane, decides to get out. Meanwhile, on the second screen (just behind the first screen), visitors can enjoy documentary films produced by Berita Film Indonesia (BFI) from 1946-1949 which have been collected and reinterpreted by curator and his team to give new shape and visual experiences for contemporary people. Huyung along with his colleges in his time was involved in BFI.
Based on all of the installation inside Forumsinema studio, we can conclude that the screening of these moving image archives is trying to present a landscape which reflects the metaphor of film development from the analog era to digital era, by expressing the working mechanism of celluloid through digital technology – which is shown in the screen of the TV monitor situated in the middle of those two hanging screens. The presence of TV installation is as if representing a ‘gap’ between issue/content/discourse framed in the films projected into the two screens.
In the corner of Forumsinema studio, a TV was laid down along with a headphone which plays another fictional work which was also made by Huyung, titled Gadis Olahraga (1951). However, in this installation, the narration is only shown in dialogue narrative and audio.
Meanwhile, outside of the studio, three screens was installed and arranged to be back to back with each other (triangle-shaped) and hanged in the ceiling of A1 Hall of Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem to give an impression of floating. Those three screens, each showing films which has a connected discourse, they are Indonesian Calling (1946) by Joris Ivens, Nippon Present (1945) by Jaap Speyer, and Calling Australia (1943) by Eitaro Hinatsu. The film installation reflects an interconnectivity between one film and the other, that during that time, the release of Indonesia Calling caused Huyung to create Calling Australia. The release of Nippon Present also causes relevance effect between those three movies.
On the other hand, the snippet of texts which have been selected from the archives of articles written by/written about Huyung as well as critique for Huyung, written in the period of 1945-1952, arranged randomly on the wall outside of the studio. The text installation seems to pique the interest of visitors to capture and arrange one page and another so the mobility of exhibition visitors seem to be more dynamic.
Some of the exhibition visitor whom I talk to expressed their opinion that the exhibition Kultursinema is important for the people, especially those who are active in Indonesian film, to be able to join and develop their hobby as well as defending historical values as well as aesthetics presented by Indonesian film industry. ***
