Iwan Kurniawan, Jakarta – The National Gallery of Indonesia called off a solo exhibition of senior artist Yos Suprapto minutes before opening on Thursday evening, December 19, 2024. The glass doors to Building A, where the exhibition entitled "Kebangkitan: Tanah Untuk Kedaulatan Pangan," or "Revival: Land for Food Sovereignty," was pad-locked and the lights inside were turned off.
The exhibition was scheduled for viewing from December 20, 2024, to January 19, 2025.
About 10 minutes before the slated opening, Tempo received a statement regarding the exhibition's postponement from the gallery's management. "This decision is taken due to unavoidable technical constraints," the statement read.
Yos Suprapto revealed that his exhibition was dropped upon his refusal to heed the request of the gallery-appointed curator, Suwarno Wisetrotomo, to take down five of his thirty paintings.
The five paintings illustrate one of Indonesia's prominent state figures. Yos said he would rather cancel the exhibition and return to Yogyakarta than take down his paintings. "I no longer want to deal with the National Gallery of Indonesia and the Ministry of Culture," Yos said in his statement.
Suwarno Wisetrotomo resigned as the exhibition's curator over the five paintings. According to Suwarno, the proposed theme had been agreed upon by the artists beforehand.
The Yogyakartan artist had created clay installations and several paintings derived from adequate research relevant to the theme. However, according to Suwarno, he discovered a couple of Yos' works that strayed from the curatorial theme for portraying his opinions on state practices and would potentially undermine the focus of the exhibition.
"The two paintings 'sounded' like mere curses and too vulgar, thus losing metaphor, which is one of the strengths of art," Suwarno said.
Unable to reach an agreement even on the day of the exhibition, Suwarno stepped back from his position as the curator of the exhibition but claimed he did not intend to halt the showing altogether.
"A curator, for me, is responsible for ensuring the compatibility between the theme and the works displayed. And, for me, a curator's opinion is vital to be considered by the artists," he said.
According to Yos, Suwarno initially asked him to cover the two paintings, Konoha I and Konoha II, with a black cloth. "And I was okay with that," he said. "But a few hours later, I met with the National Gallery's people, who then asked me to cover three of my other paintings."
"They're censoring my works, I said," added Yos.
The person in charge of the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jarot Mahendra, explained that in the process of arranging the works in the exhibition area, there were some works that had not been agreed upon by the artist and the curator.
"After going through an evaluation process by the curator, the works were deemed incompatible with the established curation theme," he said.
According to Jarot, a mediation process was conducted, but no agreement was reached, and the curator resigned. As a measure to maintain curatorial harmony and ensure the quality of the exhibition, he said, the National Gallery decided to postpone the event and will seek communication between the artist and the curator.
If postponed, Yos said, the gallery will have to compensate him. "I have many guests coming from abroad that hope to see the exhibition," he said, adding that he will wait until the afternoon for any significant changes or he will withdraw from the showing and take his works back to Yogyakarta.