DURING MARCH 2009, Kineforum and Karbon journal hold the second Exhibition of the History of Indonesian Movie Theaters, after the first exhibition that was held in March 2008. This exhibition is one among a series of events held under the theme of “Sejarah adalah Sekarang 3” (History is Now 3) – National Film Month 2009, held by Kineforum of the Jakarta Arts Council. Alongside the exhibition, there are also a variety of free events revolving around the theme of Indonesian films, including the event of “Publik untuk Ruang Publik” (The Public for the Public Space)—a fund-raising event for Kineforum, presenting musical performances by the music groups of Sore, Efek Rumah Kaca, and Kunokini.

The Exhibition of the History of Indonesian Movie Theaters presents a brief overview of the long history of the Indonesian movie theaters from 1900 to 2009. Held simultaneously in two venues—Galeri Cipta III Taman Ismail Marzuki and Komunitas Salihara—the exhibition shows a series of texts, photographs, posters, as well as comments on the movie theaters by the audience of last year’s exhibition. All of them are presented in new formats, with additional new data. In Komunitas Salihara, the exhibition is presented by responding to a range of external and internal spaces within the Salihara complex, with the texts or pictures mounted on panels, external walls, the walls of the café, along the corridor of the theater, as well as on the toilet walls.

The two exhibitions held in the succeeding two years constitute the first exhibition about the history of the Indonesian movie theaters. The data that are provided today in this exhibition reveal the link between the various important events that are strongly related to the rise and fall of the Indonesian movie theaters, which turn out to have so many different visages: that of a humble house; a building that once was grand but is now dilapidated, torn down, or has a different function; a part of a mall; or a petite screening room. While today the movie theaters are built within malls, previously they were accompanied by entertainment parks of sorts, competing against wayang orang or komedi stambul, and they even held boxing competition to attract customers. That was time when televisions, VCDs, and DVDs had not yet existed as their rivals. Theatres had also been a silent witness to the time when the society was divided based on races and classes; when imported films were exchanged with exported textiles; when films distribution was monopolized; and when national films could only be screened in low-class theaters.

The movie theaters have screened a myriad of things—from films as news, propaganda, entertainment, to films as forms of artistic expressions and criticism. Today, the movie theaters are not merely a place to view films, but also a space for discussions and debates. After more than a hundred years, the movie theaters have accompanied and recorded the history of the society and the citizens.

‘History is Now,’ as the theme of the event suggests, is an effort to record what we can gather about the past history, before all has been forgotten and disappeared without a trace. Kineforum has not been able to find many Indonesian films through its partner, Sinematek Indonesia, which is in a dire condition: without financial support and good management system. We have no appropriate national film archives, which might help us to see how Indonesia was through its films. The same thing is true for movie theaters. Many theaters have changed names, changed functions, torn down, and we did not know when it all took place, unrecorded as they have been in pictures or news. Books written based on researches on movie theaters are rare, or, when they exist, are not widely accessible. Today, however, at least we can gradually reveal this history through the exhibition that has indeed been planned to grow, ever strengthened by further research that might yield newly-uncovered data, so that we can find out the reality about the movie theaters, which have so far brought together the films and their audience, the records about the society and the recorded society, in a same room. The exhibition wishes to uncover this information, inviting the audience and concerned parties to help restore the records of our history, whether it is through financial or informational supports. Hopefully, the movie theaters will not become merely the place to amass profits. The movie theaters might again become bankrupt if we remain unaware about their history, about the stories that have made them what they are today. Time is indeed the essence, before we lose too much memory that should actually breathe lives into our future. The Exhibition of the History of Indonesian Movie Theaters is trying to record it all, now.



Galeri Cipta III, Taman Ismail Marzuki
Jl. Cikini Raya No. 73, Menteng, Central Jakarta

Komunitas Salihara
Jl. Salihara No.16, Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta

March 1-31, 2009