Wednesday August 27, 2008

Merdeka festivities

By ZACK YUSOF

Get set to soak up the fun at the 2nd Rantai Merdeka 2008, a three-day festival of independent art, film and music.

MUSIC and the arts make a move to the suburbs on Merdeka Day weekend with the 2nd Rantai Merdeka 2008 – a three-day festival of independent art, film and music – poised to bring some of the most exciting talents the local arts scene has to offer.

With events like the 2nd Rantai Merdeka 2008, which will be held at Jaya One in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, from this Friday till Sunday, striving to expose young Malaysian artistes and work in communities outside of Kuala Lumpur, more Klang Valley folk are getting the opportunity to be acquainted and involved in the local independent arts scene.

Taking their lead from the successful Urbanscapes festival model, 2nd Rantai Merdeka 2008 is dedicated to supporting independent artistes and features experimental short films, live bands from the alternative music scene, short theatre plays, art and paintings, poetry, spoken word recitals and acoustic performances by some of the best singer-songwriters in the independent scene.

Catch Couple at the 2nd Rantai Merdeka 2008 in PJ this Merdeka weekend.

With two music stages, two performing arts spaces, a screening room, an art exhibition hall and spaces for merchandising booths spread throughout the venue, the festival will blend the arts, film, music and design industries under one roof.

“Rantai is a collaboration between artists, musicians and students who see potential in presenting our talents in the local arena,” said Nadrah Radzi, 26, founder of the art event, in a press conference.

“Because Jaya One is also forging links between art, culture, commerce and the community, this is the perfect venue for our event.”

Certainly, Jaya One seems to have all the right credentials to host such an arts event. Since April 2008, it has been on a grassroots effort to develop a community that participates in the arts. Jaya One is striving to become a platform for emerging artistes to network and expose their work in an intimate, cosy setting.

The 2nd Rantai Merdeka 2008 festival will showcase performers of various genres. There will be 30 music acts performing between the live and acoustic stages, echoing the spirit of the Jaya One music series Palm Square Presents Acoustic Jaya.

Elsewhere, the short films theatre will screen narratives, documentaries and experimental work from a multi-cultural pool of local up-and-coming directors while the art exhibition gallery will run until October featuring works from 30 artists and art collectives.

But the arts scene is not the only thing that Rantai will be championing this time around. In support of the Click-A-Child foundation for underprivileged children – an initiative designed to help children up to 12 years old through the use of personal development modules on the Internet – artists and musicians will participate in a car wash on Aug 30 and 31 to raise funds for the charity organisation.

Click-A-Child will also be chaperoning several groups of sponsored children at the festival to expose them to the world of art, film and music.

The 2nd Rantai Merdeka 2008 will also benefit the Jaya One Passionately Pink campaign for breast cancer awareness, prevention and cure. From Aug 23 until Nov 1, the campaign celebrates the fighting spirit of breast cancer patients and survivors. Proceeds from Passionately Pink will benefit the Assunta Hospital Breast Cancer Community Treatment Programme.

During a recent phone interview, Nadrah explained that the 2nd Rantai Merdeka 2008 was the first time that the art collective was organising a commercial event on such a scale.

“Normally, our events are done independently and on an underground level without sponsors. So we are very excited about the event because we have a chance to be a platform for the arts scene.

“I’m an artist myself so I know just how difficult it is to get exposed to a bigger audience. There aren’t many well-managed events for artists to showcase their talents. I set up Rantai because I wanted to give local talents a platform to expose their works,” she added.

With regards to staging such an arts festival in Petaling Jaya as opposed to Kuala Lumpur, Nadrah commented: “I feel that PJ is a great place to stage Rantai because it will be the biggest event in the area on Merdeka weekend.

“I think people will turn up especially with the vibrant and diverse line-up that we have put together.

“At first we thought it was going to a small event and then it just grew in scale with more and more people signing up because it was Merdeka weekend.

“I hope that with this event, Rantai gains more recognition and we can attract more sponsors to continue the work that we have been doing,” she said on her hopes for Rantai Merdeka.

Rantai highlights

Music

Aug 29: (Acoustic) Sound of Acoustic, Salam, Kugilalensa and Reef

Aug 30: (Live band and acoustic), KokoKaina, Otams, Loudspeaker, Matematik, Mohd Jayzuan and Funky Doryz.

Aug 31: (Acoustic) Azmyl Yunor, Estrella and Rendra Zawawi

Aug 31: (Live band) Couple, Telebury, Brainhead, Coco, Bintang Baru and O.D

Booths

Kurasaraksasa

Sourmilk

Ribut Design

Dadu

Pop Rina