rejuvenating Yogya arts

Breathing Yogya’s
Artistic Spirit
A man wearing a red shirt and
shorts sits on the floor in front
of a life-sized painting he is
working on. He is applying a
light gray color to a portrait of a
girl, his eyes moving back and
forth from the painting to a small
photo he has taped on the
canvas.
It is Thursday, the night of the
soft opening of Yogyakarta ’s
10th Biennale. This arts and
culture festival is held every two
years.
Melodia, the painter, is finishing
his work at the Taman Budaya
gallery, located at the city center.
“ I’ll finish it tonight so I can get
good sleep,” Melodia said. “I’d
like to finish this at home, but
the organizers wouldn ’t like to
hear that,” he said with a laugh.
At the gallery, which is one of
the biennale ’s four main venues,
visitors watch while he finishes
the painting, part of an
installation he is preparing for
the festival.
Born and raised in Jakarta,
Melodia has been living in
Yogyakarta for 24 years, ever
since he moved there to study at
the Indonesian Institute of the
Arts. “I feel like this is the right
place for me to live if I want to
be a painter, ” he said.
Strolling around Yogyakarta, it’s
easy to see why Melodia believes
that. Historical sites and
traditions are preserved here.
Old fashioned bike-taxis and
horse carriages are common,
giving a sense of a slow moving
city where time and space are
available to turn ideas into art.
Along the popular Jalan
Malioboro — famous for its art
and handicrafts shops — carved
street lights, painted trees and
puppet figures are everywhere.
During events such as the
biennale, art installations spring
up in unexpected places.
In front of Bank Indonesia, there
is a tall, bright yellow pole with a
small toilet on top. It ’s a creation
by Eddi Prabandono, a regular
participant in the biennale. Over
by the March 1 Monument —
which commemorates a battle
for independence against the
Dutch — a modern statue of two
figures stands, draped with a
banner asking, “How artsy are
you today?”
Butet Kertaradjasa, the biennale’s
director, said that through the
festival, he and his crew want to
ensure the city lives up to the
vision of Sukarno, Indonesia ’s
first president, who described
Yogyakarta as the country ’s
capital city of art.
Butet added that Yogyakarta is a
good place for artists to live and
work together. “The society in
Yogya is very supportive and
open, ” he said.
During the monthlong biennale,
for example, city residents
donate to the organizers, such as
sachets of coffee and sugar,
instant noodles or just money.
“ We call this gurun gunung ,
which means hajatan rame-rame
[many hands make light work].
Local artists come here to
support us, ” Butet said.
The secretariat for the event at
Taman Budaya, or the Culture
Park, is busy and friendly, with
artists coming and going until
midnight. Everyone seems to
know each other and people
hang around for discussions
about artworks or compare
notes on their latest creations.
High appreciation of the arts is a
characteristic of the city ’s
society, said Yulia
Rustiyaningsih, from the local
department of culture and
tourism, which helps fund and
promote the event.
“Even on weekdays, there are a
lot of performances on the street
corners of Yogya, ” she said.
“And on weekends there’s
always something going on,
from a wayang wong [human
puppet] show to traditional
dances. ”
“Here, people are very friendly
and welcoming about art
works, ” Melodia said. He added
as a painter, he needs to meet
other artists to get feedback and
inspiration. This is difficult in
other places such as Jakarta and
Bali.
“In Jakarta, everything is so far
away, you can’t go to several
galleries in few hours and it’s a
waste of time,” he said. “If you
don’t have appointments or
money interests, it’s almost
impossible to meet other artists
and hang out. ”
As for Bali, the popularity of the
Island of the Gods with tourists
often leads painters to
commercialize their work.
“I could have lived there and
earned a lot of money, but then I
would not be able to put myself
on the map of visual art in
Indonesia, ” Melodia said.
To do this, he said he needs to
constantly create paintings and
participate in local exhibitions.
“ The challenge is how to create
honest paintings and still make a
living out of it. ”
Although many residents in the
city conform to Melodia ’s non-
commercial attitude, this doesn’t
mean that Yogyakarta hasn’t
produced internationally known
artists. Djoko Pekik is in the
forefront of Indonesian painters
today. He spent the darkest
period of his life in the city when
imprisoned at the Vredeburg
Fortress, under suspicion of
being a communist during the
political purges of the 1960s.
Popular with critics for his social
commentary and depictions of
Java ’s cultural values in his
paintings, Djoko is also known as
the “billion-dollar painter.”
At a 1999 exhibition, one of his
paintings, “Indonesia 1998
Berburu Celeng” (“Indonesia
1998 Hunting Boars”), sold for
Rp 1 billion ($106,000), the first
time an Indonesian painter had
crossed that mark.
Eddi, the sculptor responsible for
the bright yellow pole with the
toilet on top, was recently
awarded a residency by the
Vermont Foundation to live in
New York for three months next
year and have his works
exhibited at a gallery there.
The artistic vibe of Yogyakarta
has also proven attractive to
foreigners like Pipin, an
American student who has been
living there for about three
months. She is learning
Indonesian at the State
University of Yogyakarta, as well
as taking classes in batik
painting and crafts.
For the biennale, Pipin joined a
group of graphic designers who
were involved in painting
statues.
She said she came to Indonesia
because she was attracted to the
culture and the language and
ended up in Yogyakarta, drawn
by its vibrant art scene and
friendly locals.
“I like art, that’s why I enjoy
living here,” she said.
source jakartaglobe