Bonzan safeguards Cirebon pottery

By Emmy Fitri Hastuti

JAKARTA (JP): Fame and prosperity have never entered the mind of noted ceramic artist Bonzan Eddy Rochasli Adisetyo.

For Bonzan, leading a modest life helping traditional ceramic producers and potential young artists achieve their dream is much more compelling.

Once a successful young artist himself, Bonzan decided to abandon his well-appointed art studio in Bandung, West Java and sell almost all of his property to dedicate himself to preserving a precious part of Indonesia's heritage -- the clay pottery of Sitiwinangunan village in Cirebon. He even left a well-paid job with PT Keramik Indonesia, owned by his lecturer, ceramics expert Rasmaji.

"God probably had a preordained plan for me to move there," said Bonzan, a graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)'s Fine Arts and Design School.

Born in Madiun, East Java on Aug. 29, 1942, he has never been able to figure out from whom he gets his extraordinary artistic talents.

His father was in the army. His mother came from a noble family but he refused to use a title of nobility in front of his name as requested by his mother.

"I'm against feudalism. I disagree with all sorts of feudalistic practices. I know exactly how they live as my grandfather on my mother's side led such a lifestyle," he said.

Bonzan, once a rebellious teenager, said he would let his only son Bumiaji Saputra lead his own life and decide what was be best for himself.

His son was named in recognition of his deep affection and gratitude to the soil. Bumi, as the boy is often called, means earth or soil.

Among his fellow craftsmen in Sitiwinangun village, Bonzan is trying to develop an egalitarian work system and lifestyle.

"I told the villagers that I was not as good as they thought, I came there to learn pottery techniques from them," said Bonzan.

"I think they are the real artists as I have seen their sincerity and their toughness. Nowadays, many well-known artists take the credit but leave the hard work to their employees," he added.

In Sitiwinangun village, 15 kilometers east of Cirebon, the villagers mostly make large pottery items such as padhasan (water jugs), and gentong (which are used to store rice or water for cooking).

The long-established Sitiwinangun earthenware pottery, locally known as gerabah, is dominated by the color maroon.

Bonzan burst out laughing when he recalled that many people still believed that gerabah and ceramics were different. Many argued that gerabah was only half-finished ceramic as it was unglazed.

"They're all the same. Gerabah is the Indonesian word, while ceramic comes from the Greek word keramos. It's all the same, both are earthenware," he said.

Unlike the ceramics produced in other parts of the country, the ceramics from Sitiwinangun are rich in embossed decorations with various floral and plant motifs.

"This kind of jasmine decoration is only found in the Cirebon designs," Bonzan said.

His first encounter with the Sitiwinangun villagers was in 1990 when he was assigned by a non-governmental organization called PUPUK (the association for small-scale business development) to join a one-year project teaching local craftsmen about ceramic-making techniques.

"I was really fascinated with the Sitiwinangun ceramics. They are unique and not comparable to other products I have seen," he said, explaining why he returned to the village a year later to start living permanently there in 1991.

"I needed two containers to carry my equipment, including my kiln, from Bandung to Sitiwinangun," he recalled.

In his early years in the village, he lived in a house borrowed from a villager. Bonzan, then 41 years old, later married a village girl after three months living in Sitiwinangunan.

He then established the Soko Papat (Four Pillars) workshop in the village and started working with the locals. Soko Papat represents the four natural elements involved in the making of ceramics -- fire, water, soil and air.

The Caruban Foundation was also established to help market and promote the products.

During his years at ITB, he frequently traveled across the country to learn pottery-making techniques from different areas and to record the unique features of the ceramics produced in each area.

Bonzan has introduced some fresh, new ideas to the local craftsmen in Sitiwinangunan. He familiarized them with several "new" ceramic-making techniques previously unknown to the villagers.

"The Sitiwinangun ceramics are usually fired using hay in the open air. This is so they can produce a lot of ceramics at once. But I told them to stop using that method, it would only pollute the air," he said.

"What I have given to the people as regards ceramic-making process are actually the basic techniques."

When Bonzan started teaching the local craftsmen, some of the motifs and designs were abandoned. He then asked the locals to reuse old motifs which were mostly based on Cirebon-style batik.

He was so concerned over the fact that only the old people were keeping the pottery-making trade alive that he successfully encouraged the village youth to try their hand at ceramics. A large number of young men joined his studio and he found that these youths were very talented and open to innovation.

"One of them is my foster son who has been living with me since he was a kid," he said, adding that the young man was eager to study the arts at ITB.

Bonzan, who wrote Gerabah Prasejarah Jawa Barat, The Prehistoric Ceramics of West Java for his thesis, only wishes that what has been inherited should not be wasted and should be preserved properly.

"I want them (the locals) to know every step and learn more about the marketing of their products so that they will be able to stand on their own two feet," he asserted optimistically.

The people, he said, had to be empowered otherwise foreign capitalists would take over their businesses and they would be reduced to being mere workers.