Blogs, Culture and Identity in Indonesia : topic:off topic

Off Tpoic: Olahraga Gado-Gado, Take 2!!

texastee — 2008-07-11T12:40:00Z

This is slightly off topic, but never mind!

When I first started my research on Indonesian blogs, I came across the Blog Jalan Sutera, authored by Mas Pujiono. I started reading it from time to time and found an entry from November 12th, about 'Olahraga Gado-Gado'. What Puji was talking about is the new mixed-sport discipline called chessboxing.

Well now the funny part is, that chessboxing was invented in Berlin, which happens to be my hometown at the moment. And the guy who invented it, Iepe Rubingh, a Dutchman, happens to be the artists I work for a lot as a designer! So you could say I've been a fan of chessboxing from the very beginning!

Just a few days ago, on July 5th, there was another big chessboxing event held in Berlin. There were three fights that evening. Two fights before the main fight: A German guy vs. a Polish guy and a British guy vs. an Italian. As you see, chessboxing is becoming quite international!

Gianluca Sirci (IT) vs. Andrew Costello (GB), sweating over the chessboard

It's a sport where contestants have to be extremely fit both physically and mentally. The fight starts with a round of chess. This happens on a chessboard inside a boxing ring. The round of chess is three minutes long, after that time the chessboard is carried outside the ring and the boxing round begins. After the boxing round, the chessboard comes back into the ring and the chess game continues. All this happens extremely fast - the fighters have to switch between controlling their pumping hearts and adrenaline level to concentrating fully on a complex and fast chess game. It's not easy, let me tell you!

The main fight

Frank Stoldt (GER) looking grim in the boxing round...

The German defender of the World Championship title, Frank Stoldt, fought against young Russian Newcomer Nikolay Sazhin. After a long streak of wins, because of his experience and excellent skills, Frank Stoldt was beaten by this 19-year old Russian talent. It was an awesome fight and showed that there is now a new generation of chessboxers awakening!

...but finally having to admit defeat to super-talented youngster Nikolay Sarzhin from Siberia!

After the fight, I had a chat and a drink with the lucky winner Nikolay, and we came to the conclusion that it would be a nice idea to transform chessboxing into the true Triathlon of the 21st Century: Round of chess followed by round of boxing followed by round of vodka...

OFF TOPIC: YI Hwan-Kwon

texastee — 2007-12-17T05:38:00Z

Yesterday I stopped by Edwin´s Gallery on Kemang Raya, a place that usually shows some interesting contemporary art from Indonesia and Asia.

This time, only one piece really caught my eye: A sculpture by Korean artist Yi Hwan-Kwon. It´s a painted fiberglass figure of a boy on a kickboard, but the entire figure is stretched and flattened in a way that really confuses your brain when looking at it.

I think because our brain is so used to process the sight of a human figure and expects it to have a certain proportion, the brain tries to compensate for the missing dimensions of Kwonkwon´s figure, so it´s kind of like an optical illusion.

It´s a really fun piece of art, some cute details like the Fila-Socks the boy is wearing round it off. Unfortunately, it´s already sold I wonder who´s the lucky owner?!

OFF TOPIC: APOTIK KOMIK

texastee — 2007-06-13T15:04:00Z

Apotik Komik is a collective of cartoonists and visual artists based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Apotik Komik was:
Arie Dyanto, Samuel Indratma, Bambang Toko, and Popok Tri Wahyudi.
Apparently they do not work as a group any longer, but have moved on to work as individual artists.

The above image is a cardboard installation by APOTIK KOMIK was shown at the exhibition AWAS! Recent art from Indonesia in Berlin, 2002.