Artists continue festival despite 'facistic' raid

Artists continue festival despite 'facistic' raid

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Despite a raid by public order officers, street artists insisted
on Monday that they would continue to paint the streets, saying
the public had the right to enjoy and appreciate art.

"We will continue to paint on the street and hold street
art festivals as we believe that all citizens have the right to
celebrate and appreciate the arts," said Bebek, an artist from
the Taring Padi group.

Late on Saturday, public order officers cleared the artists
from Jl. Sumenep in Menteng, Central Jakarta, where a two-day
Street Art Festival was being held, and forced the artists to
vacate Sumenep Park.

The officers accused the artists of disturbing the public,
damaging the environment and selling drugs. They pulled down the
artists' banners and painted over their wall murals, including a
painting of murdered human rights activist Munir on Jl. Sudirman.

The artists -- some of whom had tattoos and various parts of
their bodies pierced -- were accused of being "thugs" by the
officers, who then assaulted two of them and gave money to a
group of unidentified men in order to get them to force the
artists to leave the venue at about 10 p.m.

"They accused us of being thugs, yet the officers themselves,
including Public Order Office chief Harianto Baijuri, were drunk
when they arrived at the scene," said Amir, an artist from the
Nurani Senja group.

Bebek said the artists had obtained a permit from the city
police to stage the festival on condition that the event was
finished by 12 a.m.

"A few hours before the deadline, the officers came to the
venue and ordered us to finish by 11 p.m. We did. We followed
their orders and yet we were still treated like this," he said.

This, he said, proved how fascistic the city administration
was.

Amalia Pulungan of the Institute for Global Justice (IGJ) said
the important thing was not at what time the officers started to
clear the street, but the fact that the officers used coercive
measures.

The two-day Street Art Festival, which was organized jointly
by IGJ, the Urban Poor Consortium, the Taring Padi arts and
cultural organization from Yogyakarta, and Nurani Senja, was
moved to the Taman Ismail Marzuki Arts Center on Jl. Cikini Raya.
The event was closed on Sunday night.