A journey of discovery

Cryptic has been working with the British Council since 1995, and we've had many successful tours, cultural exchanges and international collaborations over the years. This project in relation to Indonesia is slightly different; I am running a pilot programme for Creative Scotland called New Pathways, with a view to presenting high-quality, culturally diverse work from lesser-known cultures which traditionally have had less exposure in Scotland and the UK.

An example of this was Visiting Arts, which, in the 1990s was presenting extraordinary work from countries that we were less familiar, such as Mongolia and Turkmenistan. This was of course before the birth of budget travel and when we were less familiar with the world. Recently, in Scotland, much of the work which we see (out with the Edinburgh Festival) is from countries that we're more familiar with, such as Belgium and Canada. I first saw Polish work at the Edinburgh Festival in 1992 and it completely blew me away; now we are more familiar with their culture and performances.

Subsequently, I'm interested in presenting culture from lesser-known countries and exploring how we use art to inspire and educate our audiences. In parallel with this, artists are often inspired when they see new work, which also develops their practice. That certainly happened to me when I moved to Glasgow in 1990, when it was European Capital of Culture; the work I saw at Tramway completely changed my artistic vision as a young director.

For this trip to Indonesia, I spoke to Carole [McFadden, Theatre and Dance Advisor at the British Council] about the project and the regions that I was specifically interested in, and she came back to me with this trip, and asked if I would be interested in going.

The Indonesian Performing Arts Market (IPAM) staff went to great lengths to send Carole samples of their work. Nowadays, we don't so readily jump on a plane as we might have done 10- 15 years ago. With the growth of technology we can see examples online of performances, which give a good ‘taste’. What is extraordinary about this trip is that there was such a diverse range of high quality Indonesian work that hasn’t been presented yet within the UK.

We saw truly great performances, ranging from traditional Indonesian music to extremely visual contemporary dance; young bands to traditional court dances and also contemporary theatre. Theatre wise, we sadly only saw presentations from companies, not any actual shows, which was a great shame. We didn't get to see the live work of Theatre Garasi, Opera Java or Paper Moon, which is clearly very strong, though we did mange to have follow up face to face meetings with them.

Jakarta is completely overwhelming, a population of nine million with no underground or tram system; one spends a lot of time in traffic jams. I've come back knowing a lot more about the richness and diversity of Indonesian culture and delighted to have met so many warm, welcoming people. A lot of the artistic work we saw is ready to tour internationally, especially Theatre Garasi. I also travelled to Yogyakarta as the Biennale was on and many artists also live here. It’s smaller than Jakarta with a population of only three million.

One special artist I met was Jompet Kuswidananto, who produces incredible visual sound work. This I wasn't expecting, because I was focusing on New Pathways. However, to discover work perfect for Sonica, a sonic arts festival I curate in Glasgow, was marvellous. Some of the work I saw in Yogyarkarta was absolutely right for Sonica, so that was fascinating for me, and I was quite delighted. I thank the British Council for this opportunity which introduced me to Indonesia culture and I look forward to many fruitful collaborations in the future.

Cathie Boyd visited the Idonesian Performing Arts Market with the support of the British Council. You can follow Cryptic's work on Twitter @CrypticGlasgow, and keep up to date with all of the Theatre and Dance team's projects and news @UKTheatreDance. Cathie was speaking to Eleanor Turney, who you can follow @EleanorTurney.