Agung Rai Museum: A wealth of Balinese culture

Agung Rai Museum: A wealth of Balinese culture

By Benito Lopulalan

UBUD, Bali (JP): Some people follow their dreams. Others discover, or invent dreams in order to have a fulfilling life. Bali's artists are fortunate to have someone with a strong determination to make their dreams come true.

Agung Rai has been dreaming of his own museum of arts for a long time.

"It has to be Balinese in nature and international in gesture," he said in a Bali-based travel magazine in 1992.

This year, his dream has finally come true. Although the Agung Rai Museum of Arts hasn't been formally opened, Bali's atmosphere combined with international influence can be seen in the building, its landscaping, and most of all, its programs. The museum is situated southeast of Ubud, Gianyar.

"Perhaps the first reason to choose Ubud is because it is his place of origin," Kadek Adnyana, art observer, says.

Kadek refers to the Balinese belief of karawitan (origin). To some extent, the modern meaning of this belief has resulted in the development of many villages, because many Balinese seem to compete to develop their respective villages. Building their own villages is a matter of pride in the eyes of tradition.

Agung Rai was born in the village of Peliatan in Ubud, in July, 1955. He became acquainted with the arts from an early age, especially after he learned painting from Anak Agung Gede Raka Turas and Nyoman Darmana. He was interested in becoming a good painter but his artistic tastes developed faster than his skills. He decided that he would never be a painter whose standards were as high as his self-demand. His disappointment with himself drained his inspiration. He abandoned the desire to become a painter.

Instead, Agung Rai decided to help many of his friends and relatives who didn't have enough time to paint because they were busy selling paintings. In 1968 he took several works from his teachers and friends to sell to tourists. At that time, tourists usually came to villages to watch dance performances. One of those performances was in the village of Mas, a neighboring village of Peliatan. Agung Rai went there by bike, taking as many paintings as he could carry. Even though there were not as many tourists as there are today, Agung Rai could sell all the paintings for US$1 each.

The first success in Mas made him dream of becoming more developed in his choice of living. He extended his operation to Kuta, as a street peddler, selling all kinds of crafts. Several colleagues from this Kuta period remember that Agung Rai was a successful street peddler. He could sell anything in his hands.

Along with the increasing number of tourists, Agung Rai spent more time in restaurants with foreigners. By listening and talking to them, he learned English and built friendships, which later gave him stronger confidence to build his own business. He also started collecting his favorite art pieces. After seven years he built three rooms and invited people to stay and enjoy his art collection. Gradually, he was able to provide accommodation for his visitors. Now these simple rooms have been replaced by a well-known hotel, the Puri Indah.

"I always hold on to my dreams," he says. "What else did I have except dreams?"

It is clear that for Agung Rai, Kuta was only a temporary stop on the way to understanding more about his own business.

"For many Balinese entrepreneurs," he says, "Building a business away from the village of their origin is the last option."

His marriage, and the birth of his first child in 1978, strengthened his desire to stay close with the family in his village. He built a structure in Peliatan, which later became the Agung Rai Fine Art Gallery.

In 1978 he began dreaming of a museum. His enthusiasm to learn only enhanced his dream.

"I like to travel and compare the arts in Bali with those in other societies," he says.

Learning brings vision. The need to learn abroad has helped develop him further, not only in spatial awareness, but also in ideas. His dream for a museum became clearer and he did anything to realize it.

"The picture of a museum in my head became very clear after my visit to Europe," he says.

The learning process also brought about the notion of the "meeting of cultures". It might be derived from his journeys, his cosmopolitan friends and the notion of akrab (closeness in trust), which is very important in a Balinese neighborhood. For Agung Rai, such a closeness can also be applied to cultures.

"A meeting of cultures can develop cultures," Agung Rai says convincingly.

Agung Rai told me this for the first time several months ago, after the performance of Tuju Taksu, a contemporary mask theater which was inspired by Bali and created by a female theater company.

"Without the meeting of cultures, this kind of performance would not have existed."

"Without cultural meetings, there would not have been museums in Bali. Museums are not an indigenous concept of Balinese culture," he asserts.

This notion is obvious in his museum building, with its harmonious blend of architectural concepts from Europe and Bali; an evidence of the understanding of the core of the notion.

"We should preserve our culture, that is a must," he insists.

For this reason, Agung Rai has invited many old dancers and painters to perform or exhibit in the museum complex.

"I have seen many societies that do not develop their cultures, they even let them decay," he says.

However, the meaning of preservation for Agung Rai is not only keeping the cultural heritage, but also preventing it from stagnation. Consequently, preservation, or cultural continuity, goes hand in hand with any effort to develop it. In Agung Rai's opinion, developing culture and creating something new is very important for the preservation of culture itself.

"Development without the preservation of culture is like harvesting fruit without fertilizing the roots," he explains.

Within this philosophy, a museum for Agung Rai goes beyond being a place for remembering the beauty of the past, but also a fertile center to cultivate "a new fruit from the same tree and the same roots".

By implementing the notion of cultural meetings, the preservation of culture can be more effective. When his museum, in cooperation with the Goethe Institute, arranged the restoration of the paintings of Walter Spies, a famous German artist who lived in Bali in the 1930s, Agung Rai once again mentioned that restoring paintings is beyond the Balinese culture.

"It is not important where the skills come from," he says. "The restorers help us to preserve our historical documentation."

The Agung Rai museum also used the opportunity to train young Balinese artists in painting restoration.

The museum organizes exhibitions, dance and music performances, education and training, painting lessons, seminars and workshops, and provides a library and study room. Besides regular events, such as traditional performances on its stage, the Asparagus Cafe, it has held many events. In June, it housed the Fourth International Bamboo Conference. The latest event was the 100 years commemoration of Walter Spies in September and the exhibition Images Of Power, which displayed Balinese paintings from the 1930s made for Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. Both are famous anthropologists who did research in Bali during the period.

"I hope that through this museum and all its activities, we can create a culture-sphere in modern Bali," Agung Rai told several artists during an informal meeting recently.

A cultural space in Agung Rai's perspective is a place where people can discuss culture, the arts and the social environment.

"Or being introduced to culture, not only by seeing paintings but also by meeting people."

This belief is realized in the architectural concept. Within the museum complex there are two restaurants, the Kokokan Club Thai Restaurant and L'Asparagus Cafe, and a coffee shop, Warung Kopi, surrounded by paddy fields.

"Not everybody likes paintings, we should give them a chance to feel first," he said.

Accommodation is provided by the Puri Indah Hotel. The aim of all the facilities is to create an artists' community in the museum area.

"The facilities are built to create meetings in a leisurely atmosphere," Agung Rai says. "Previously, we had banjars and palaces for that purpose, now we have museums."

Also for that reason, Agung Rai has bought the paddy fields around the museum.

"The arts in Bali grow as an agrarian culture, like the paddy in those fields," he says, pointing to the rows of green paddy.

According to Agung Rai, once the sphere of culture develops, we will witness the growth of another dream: A better future for Balinese arts.