Between Reflection and Transformation

The international academic seminar Art Thinking: Art as Action was held as part of ArtJog 2025 in collaboration with the Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) Yogyakarta. It brought together three speakers from different contexts: Dr Ishak bin Ramli from Malaysia (online), Jun Kitazawa, PhD from Japan, and Drs. Anusapati, MFA from Indonesia. Their perspectives illuminated how art thinking does not remain at the level of ideas but unfolds in action, intervention, and transformation.

 

As an alumna of ISI Yogyakarta, I felt honoured to return as the moderator of this conversation. To be in dialogue with such distinguished speakers, alongside participants both offline and online. It was humbling to witness how ideas and practices from different geographies could intersect and resonate with one another.

 

The seminar theme of Art as Action emphasises art as a process where thought and action are inseparable. Art is not only a mode of representation of ideas but also a way of engaging with society. Rather than being treated as a separate field, Art Thinking offers us a framework to understand art as both a cognitive exploration and a social action that holds the capacity for transformation. This connects with the philosophical notion of praxis (where theory and practice are intertwined) which reminds us that creative practices are at once reflective and transformative. Within this framework, this seminar explored how artistic practices can serve as a direct means of intervention within social, political, and cultural spheres.

 

Dr Ishak bin Ramli proposed that art thinking differs from design thinking in a fundamental way. Design is often problem-solving and solution-oriented, while art is question-driven. Art opens spaces for imagination, vision, and critical philosophy. His term “doing thinking” captured this process, one that is at once critical and generative. Speaking from his experience in Malaysia, he underlined the need for institutions like Balai Seni Negara to decentralise art, reach wider publics, and move beyond the confines of the white cube. For him, art is a means of “memanusiakan masyarakat,” or humanising society, and its impact must be felt across psychological, economic, and spiritual dimensions of life. His references to Bakat Muda Sezaman and the idea of a “Hospital Seni,” conceived as a centre for conservation and restoration, illustrated how art can sustain communities by regenerating values as much as preserving objects.

 

Jun Kitazawa shared his community-based artistic practice, which begins with essential questions: Who am I? Where do I come from? How do I want to live? His curiosity has led him to experiment with temporary systems that interrupt everyday routines and open up possibilities for new kinds of encounters. He drew a contrast between the structured predictability of daily life in Japan and the chaotic, uncertain energies of Indonesia. For him, stability is not always ideal, as it leaves little room for 'survival mode', whereas uncertainty allows creativity to grow (as a mode of resilience). The Living Room project, which invited communities to collectively complete and inhabit empty rooms, and the Sun Self Hotel, a five-year fictional hotel powered by solar energy and staffed by local residents, exemplified how art can propose alternative modes of social interaction. His more recent work, Fragile Gift, recreated Hayabusa (Japanese fighter aircraft) that had once landed in Java into kites. This gesture was both poetic and political, linking personal memory, contested history, and the possibility of cultural exchange. What became evident was that his art thinking is not just theoretical. It takes shape through negotiation with communities, leaders, and historical perspectives.

 

Lastly, Anusapati reflected on his long career as an artist and educator. His journey began with formalist explorations of material, including bronze, reclaimed wood, and iron, yet gradually turned toward urgent questions of ecology, politics, and society. He noted that art is often positioned between two poles: autonomous art, which exists for its own sake, and heteronomous art, which is bound to collective life. He cautioned that art has never been completely pure. It is often entangled with systems of power and economy. Yet within these entanglements lies the possibility for art to become a vehicle of aspiration and collective empowerment. His emphasis on local wisdom and the need for its regeneration resonated strongly in the present moment, where cultural and ecological struggles converge. His commissioned work for ArtJog 2025, Secret of Eden, constructed with dead trees, iron, and electro-acoustic sound, exemplified this urgency by transforming environmental loss into a site of reflection.

Listening to these amazing key speakers revealed that Art Thinking: Art as Action cannot be confined to a single method or path. Sometimes it takes the form of critical questioning, sometimes it invents temporary systems of community, and sometimes it draws upon local knowledge as collective strength. What ties them together is the view that art and life cannot be separated, where every artistic thought carries the weight of action.

 

The seminar offered a rich array of works and creative approaches that were not only inspiring but also opened up further questions. When artists work with communities, what ethics are at stake? What constitutes a truly democratic and egalitarian practice? How should we understand the position of insider and outsider, and what limitations arise when working with local communities? What does access really mean in these contexts? We might also want to reflect on how art as social action leaves a legacy for the communities involved, how fluid ownership can become?