No Disc
Rozendaal meletakkan beberapa tabung monitor televisi di lantai yang terhubung dengan pemutar DVD. Pemutar tersebut tidak memainkan keping DVD, ia hanya berada di posisi stand by (siap memutar) yang lazim saat kita belum memasukan keping DVD. Dalam setiap alat pemutar, telah tersimpan program screen saver yang akan muncul saat alat tersebut tidak dimainkan. Seniman muda ini dengan jeli menangkap fenomena teknologi yang yang sederhana ini.
Dari No Disc ini, kita bertanya-tanya bagaimana karya seni video itu didefinisikan. Pada sebuah diskusi di Surabaya beberapa tahun lalu seorang seniman mengatakan pada saya, “Saya tidak suka dengan karya media, karena hanya mengambil apa saja untuk diletakkan, kemudian itu disebut karya seni. Seni itu seharusnya ada proses inspirasi dan memasaknya seperti kita membuat makanan”. Jadi, dalam perspektif seniman itu, karya Rozendaal ini tidak termasuk karya seni.
Begitulah, ada jarak yang jauh antara fenomena teknologi dan cara berpikir “media” dengan padangan modernis seniman kita. Padahal kalau kita menarik pikiran tentang “inspirasi” dan “memasak” pada karya-karya Rozendaal, bukanlah pada materinya. Namun dapat kita lihat pada pertarungan ide. No Disc memberikan gambaran jelas tentang pertarungan ide tentang seni video dan representasi visual dalam konteks seni rupa, seniman ini mencabut “kebendaan” pada karya video. Yang ia hadirkan hanyalah perangkat-perangkat pemutar yang sebenarnya dalam perspektif “kebendaan seni” bukanlah karya seni. Tapi Rozendaal bukanlah membicarakan “karya” seni itu sebagai format estetika benda, No Disc membangun ambiguitas kita pada kebudayaan dan teknologi.
Selain menggunakan berbagai teknologi media, Rafaël Rozendaal juga menggukan tubuhnya sebagai “media”. Seperti pada karya Self portrait on Sunset Blvd (2007), Rafaël Rozendaal menuliskan “internet” pada bagian belakang bibirnya. Ia juga menggunakan I-Phone dalam memproduksi teaser video untuk aplikasi telepon pintar tersebut.
Rafaël Rozendaal (1980) adalah seniman muda yang saat ini menetap di Amsterdam, Belanda. Dia adalah salah seorang cucu dari mantan presiden Brazil, Humberto Castello Branco (1964 –1967). Selain membuat karya-karya video, seniman ini juga aktif mempresentasikan karya-karya seni internet, instalasi, drawing, buku dan interaktif.
Beberapa pameran penting Rafaël Rozendaal rentang 2002-2010:
Texture Maps, dikurasi oleh Eelco van der Lingen, Nest, The Hague, Circa art fair, Preteen gallery, Puerto Rico;
Better Brain: Projected Manifestations of Futurity, Future Gallery;
Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Internet, dikurasi oleh Miltos Manetas and Jan Aman, Venice;
Are you sure you are you?, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, NYC;
Loop of Neen, Loop Festival, Barcelona;
It Will Never be the Same, quarantine, Amsterdam (pameran tunggal);
White Trash, electronic orphanage, Los Angeles (pameran tunggal);
Biennale.net, deitch projects, New York;
Tirana Biennale, Tirana Albania.
Web: newrafael.com
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“Media” In the Mind of Rafaël Rozendaal
In a number of video and media art exhibitions that I attended, video works emerge as a vital part in the presentation of media art. But how do we define video “works”? From the classic perspective, video is defined as non-narrative audio visual work. Can we still cling to this definition upon reviewing Rafaël Rozendaal’s No Disc (2006)?
No Disc
Rozendaal placed a number of television screen tubes on the floor and connected them to a DVD player. The player did not read any disc; it merely remained in stand by position as often seen when one is yet to insert any disc. In any kind of player, there is a default screensaver shown each time the device turns idle. This young artist sharply observed this ordinary technological occurrence.
Through No Disc, we question how video art is defined. During a discussion a few years ago in Surabaya, an artist said to me, “I dislike media art because it puts just about anything and call it art. Art should possess a deliberate process of inspiration and be thoroughly baked, like when one is preparing a meal.” Hence, viewed from his perspective, Rozendaal’s work is no art.
So there we have such gapping perspective between technology phenomenon and media ways of thinking and our artist’s modernist view. But if we stretch our point of view concerning inspiration and the “cooking” of Rozendaal’s work, it does not lay in the material that he presented in his work. Rozendaal’s work is all about a clash of ideas. No Disc gives a vivid description of the clash of ideas on video art and visual representation within the visual art context; Rozendaal removed all “materiality” in video work. What he presented are devices which are—within the perspective of art materiality—not art works. But he did not speak of art work as a form of material aesthetic. No Disc shapes our ambiguity toward culture and technology.
Besides getting his hands on various media technology, Rozendaal also used his body as media. In one of his works, Self Portrait on Sunset Blvd (2007), he wrote the word “internet” on the inner side of his lip. He also used IPhone in making a video teaser for an app.
Rafaël Rozendaal (1980) is a young artist currently resides in Amsterdam, Netherland. He is the grandson of the former Brazilian president, Humberto Castello Branco (1964-1967). Besides making video works, he widely presents internet art works, installations, drawings, books and interactive art works.
Several of Rafaël Rozendaal’s noteworthy exhibitions circa 2002-2010:
Texture Maps, dikurasi oleh Eelco van der Lingen, Nest, The Hague, Circa art fair, Preteen gallery, Puerto Rico;
Better Brain: Projected Manifestations of Futurity, Future Gallery;
Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Internet, dikurasi oleh Miltos Manetas and Jan Aman, Venice;
Are you sure you are you?, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, NYC;
Loop of Neen, Loop Festival, Barcelona;
It Will Never be the Same, quarantine, Amsterdam (solo exhibition);
White Trash, electronic orphanage, Los Angeles (solo exhibition);
Biennale.net, deitch projects, New York;
Tirana Biennale, Tirana Albania.
Web: newrafael.com
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