An Intercultural Dialogue between Artists of Bali and the Basel Regio
Catur Yuga – in the Cycle of Time

At Jakarta Art Building
July 22, 1998

The Project

The conceptual background of this collaboration are the Hindu teachings of the world periods. One world-period, consists of four world-ages (Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga), that renew themselves in constant repetition. It is said that we are now living in the fourth, Kali Yuga, signified by materialism, individualism and exhaustion.

The western linear understanding of time (the belief in the last day and the last Judgement, the belief in the limitedness and finiteness of life) is confronted with a cyclical and cosmological understanding of time, the belief in a self-repeating coming into being and passing of the cosmos and of human life, (Urs Ramseyer).

All artists involved in the project actually reveal different artistic approaches based on this concept. Catur Yuga intends to extend old relations and to establish new ones.

Cakra Manggilingan : The wheel keeps on spinning ………………..

The artistic components of it should bring up questions of time and the possibilities to deal it in a creative way. Time is, in other words, an excellent subject for a dialogue between equal partners from different cultures.

First Performance

The dance "A Break in Time", choreographed by Esther Sutter (Basel), is based on the cosmic view of the four elements, air (white), water (black), earth (yellow), fire (red), and the four points of the compass, the concept on which also Andreas Straub’s pictorial work on Bali is based. It is performed by dancers of the Sonja Carioni/Daniel Almada Ensemble for Dance and Electronic Music. The live music, performed by the gamelan orchestra "Anggur Jaya", was composed by the Balinese musician, I Nyoman Windha during his stay in Basel from September through December 1997, while the electronic music sections were created by Daniel Almada, an Argentinian composer living in Basel.

The Music

The musical programme consists of 3 compositions reflecting the experiences and inspirations of the composers in the course of the intercultural dialogue. Whilst I Ketut Cater rewrote his composition "Kreta Masa" for Gamelan Gong Kebyar, originally composed in Bali, under the impression of the appearance and spirit of the mountainous area of Basel during his stay in Switzerland in 1997, Thomas Kessler from Switzerland and Dieter Mack from Germany made use of the gamelan instrumentarium to explore new ways of expression in their respective individual western compositorial language with "Parabel" (Thomas Kessler), based on Ajip Rosidi’s poem "Sebuah Parabel" and "Catur" (Dieter Mack)

All compositions performed by the gamelan orchestra "Anggur Jaya" with musicians from Basel, Freiburg/Breisgau and Munich.

Second Performance

The dance "Beat Upon Beat’

For one lady dancer and computer generated tape music (1998)

Dancer : Sharon Quaife
Choreography : Sonja Carioni
Music : Daniel Almada
Costume : Sabin Bally

The collaboration of choreographer Sonja Carioni and composer Daniel Almada is a dialogue with a dancer’s as well as a visual-acoustic means. Their work, as far as dance, music and video are concerned, is mostly based on the original sound of movement.

The percussive element of the gamelan music for "Break of Time" as of Daniel Almada’s composition for "Beat upon Beat" is the combining idea of the dance programme. In fact, percussion is being experienced as something audible in the first place; but for choreographer Sonja Carioni " to beat" also means something visual, and thus a gesture or movement. The rhytmical and percussive structuring of Carioni’s body images served as a starting for her choreography "Beat upon Beat".

The Music

Daniel Almada was born in 1964 Buenos Aires (Argentina). After his music studies (piano, music theory and composition), he continued his studies at the Music academy in Basel where he took "Electronic composition" as his main subject. His teacher was Thomas Kessler from 1990 until 1995. Typical for Daniel Almada is his use of live-electronics (electronic instruments that change original instrumental sounds during the live-performance) and his close collaboration with the choreographer Sonja Carioni. Together with Sonja Carioni and some dancers he founded (and conducts) an ensemble for dance and electronic music in Basel. In 1992 he received a composition prize by the Volksbank Basel. 

Beside, Dance and Music performance in Catur Yuga, there was an Art Exhibition at The Regent Jakarta from July 22 to July 31, 1998, exposing the works of a Balinese Artist, I Made Wianta and an artist from Basel, Andreas Straub.

The ‘Catur Yuga’ performance was successfully co-organized by The Embassy of Switzerland in Indonesia and Goethe – Institut, Jakarta.

 
 

 
 

Suryo S. Negoro

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