The
Peace Installation by Marc Bollansee
Installation art is an inexhaustible artistic discipline, sometimes spiritual
and subversive but mostly ephemeral. It is also a hybrid discipline that probably
has its origins in architecture and performance, but is equally influenced by
painting, sculpture and conceptual art. Installations have always existed for
the Balinese, but have only recently been accepted as an art form, not unlike
their recent recognition on the global contemporary art scene.
Wianta grew up in a world where his ancestors were masterbuilders, while his
own father I Gede Labdana was a priest who gave almost daily barong performances.
It is no wonder that Wianta developed a precocious talent for these timeless
artistic disciplines. Throughout his career Made Wianta has managed to sustain
sudden bursts of creativity. Once again he has succeeded in creating significant
artworks soon after the Art and Peace Performance, creations which are its direct
offsprings. Drawing has inspiration from the performance and from natural elements
like the sea and the wind, Wianta made use of discarded objects found on the
beach and put himself to the task of creating an amazing series of installations
that would give an extra dimension to his project. Wianta was in a state of
profound sympathy with nature and searched for the interaction between people,
object and nature.
Much of the intensity that Wianta put into his performance can be found again
in his installations. The installations were created without an audience, except
for the few local participant-fishermen and the Swiss artist-photographer Pierre
Poretti, who recorded them on photographs and thus helped to counteract the
ephemeral existence of each installation. Thematically the installations all
refer to peace, and sections of the 2,000 metre long banner were used to conjure
up very dramatic effects. The first series focuses on people wrapped in the
peace cloth; a local fisherman with strong features and powerful expressions
participated in some of them. Others show statuesque figures that remind us
of primitive sculptures or even the Statue of Liberty.
In this first series the expressions and movement of persons and objects combine
to increase the expression of peace. The second series shows sacred white geese,
fitting living symbols of peace. The interaction with animals, trees and plants
is highly valued by the artist and in line with Hindu tradition and Balinese
principles of balance and harmony. A third series centres around a discarded
chair and the artist, in virtuoso exercise, gives us his vision of a throne
or a temple on the beach, and which is to be understood as an improvised monument
for peace. The sculptural beauty of these pieces reveals the artist's fascination
with aestethics that directly enhance the quality of our lives. A fourth series
simply shows the peace banner on rocks or curled up on pole-like objects. They
are like still lives in the midst of nature. Wianta draws our attention to rocks
or stones that are not placed by man in the landscape; these natural formations
must be seen as witnesses of time and the nexus of energy fields for the environment.
A last fifth series is constituted from large stones that look like sea walls
or rafts and form strong constructions that easily support the banner of peace.
These stones here are witnesses of man's intervention in nature, and have as
their ultimate objective the protection of man. The economy, simplicity and
beauty of these pieces is simply stunning.
All the Peace Installations were executed in a very short time span and attest
to the ability of the artist to reproduce the vast reservoir of images stored
in his mind, as well as to his remarkable powers of improvisation. Together
with the Wave Paintings, the photographs of the Peace Installations will form
the lasting artistic legacy of the Art and Peace Performance.
(Taken from Made Wianta Art and Peace, Times Editions, 2000, page 92.)
