Call for friends of the arts made within oil society

By Julianti Parani

JAKARTA (JP): Art lovers of the performing arts society know well the high quality of Retno Maruti and her Padnecwara Dance group performances. They first appeared in the 1970s at the Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta Arts Center. And now in this time of crises where every image of life looks gray and gloomy for the arts, some enlightenment happened all of a sudden when the oil society met with Retno Maruti, dancer and choreographer specialized in the classical Javanese dance, at an executive club named Bimasena.

This club of the Mines and Energy society situated at The Dharmawangsa, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta has survived the first year of its existence amidst the multiple crises -- economic, political, financial, cultural, security that hit Indonesian life. Bimasena, for the first time proudly presented on Sept. 9, a cultural evening of Retno Maruti 's Padnecwara. The Sekar Pembayun's Langendriyan (song and dance) performance of Retno Maruti's exquisite choreography has added to the cultural ambience for this club. One should still remember that Maruti's Sekar Pembayun had its premiere at the TIM Jakarta Arts Center, 20 years ago.

Among the artistic society, Maruti, a lecturer of the Jakarta Institute of the Arts, is a teacher in need and a friend indeed in preserving traditional Javanese values in the dramatic change of contemporary Jakarta arts development for many decades already. The recent occasion conducted by the Bimasena society which promises to be active in promoting Indonesian culture in addition to its close involvement with mining and energy sectors, is to bring about friendship among the members and friendship to Indonesian artists. A golden opportunity has opened to the Padwecwara and other similar qualified performing arts groups to broaden its friendship circle through this important sector.

On Aug. 18, Bimasena had the Independence Day concert as a "Tribute to a Nation" featuring the Twilite Orchestra conducted by Addhie MS, presenting a selection of national and international patriotic music.

The Bimasena, a meeting place for business and social interaction with its super star facilities, is an executive club offering information services, a library, multimedia facilities in the mines and energy industry, dining and entertainment, health and beauty treatment, and indoor and outdoor recreation facilities.

It is managed by Rosewood Hotels and Resorts of America and aims to be the center of the Indonesian and Asia Pacific communities in this fields, which would certainly elevate the Indonesian arts and artists to be better appreciated through this circle.

An executive club similar to the old "Petroleum Club" of the 1970s has come out of the present Indonesian crisis as one club making an effort to build a better venue on the eve of the next millennium.

For the arts people of Jakarta, one might remember that a society of friends of the arts has never really been successful in supporting the arts. A long time ago in its early years, TIM had a Lingkaran Seni (Arts Circle). There was also a Kine Club of the Jakarta Arts Council which had similar ideals to those of friends of the arts. If not searching for art funding, it was providing funding through buying a certain amount of tickets as a means of support. Many efforts have been initiated to establish this kind of society for promoting the arts. But alas, it did not bring about a long-term result.

Then, foundations were established providing an institutionalized structure for the arts, which were expected to give better results. There exists at present another society called the Society of the Performing Arts (Masyarakat Seni Pertunjukan Indonesia), which derived from the former Society of Musicology, and is by nature a professional organization in arranging meetings, seminars, festivals in Jakarta and all over Indonesia, such as Flores, Kalimantan, and recently in Bali. It did a great job in sharing knowledge between practitioners and researchers.

However, gathering art lovers for fund raising to support the arts, happens to be a hard job especially when the economic crisis has not yet given us a brighter view. Those activities are just repeating what the government sector did in the past, but is hampered at present due to the crisis.

Retno Maruti and her Padnecwara group has performed many dance dramas in the classical Langendriyan way, like Damarwulan (1976), Abimanyu Gugur (1976), Roro Mendut (1977), Savitri (1977), Sekar Pembayun (1979), Ciptoning (1983), and Dewabrata (1997). Sekar Pembayun's background story is considered legend by the early Mataram kingdom, which tells the story of its first ruler, Senopati, whose daughter Sekar Pembayun disguised as a dancer lured his enemy Ki Ageng Mangir to become her husband. In persuading him to pay homage to her father, she put him in a position to be killed by her own father. It was a popular story derived from the Babad Galuh Mataram and the Serat Andupara, which was played at traditional theatrical performances such as ketoprak.

This Sekar Pembayun by Retno Maruti at the Bimasena was an excellent performance, of which the art lovers have seen so many times. But the performance has given another perspective to promoting and most probably in marketing the performing arts of Indonesia to a different section of society.

Art lovers were invited on that evening to become "friends of Padnecwara." Former minister of mines and energy and former secretary general of OPEC, Prof.Dr.Subroto, chairman of a society of "arts lovers" and "arts lovers to be", in his opening speech of that cultural evening, quoted a wise man saying that "religion makes life tranquil, science makes life easy and art makes life beautiful."

This is not an appeal to discredit the already existing societies and foundations of the arts, that somehow has kept the arts alive through difficult times. But one should consider new alternatives to open new ways to continue nurturing artistic achievements that have been made by our own artists. It is a moral responsibility to keep what we have achieved in the arts as a balance to fill up the gap in what we have lost in the crisis that our nation has been facing. Therefore it is now high time to establish the existence of Friends of the Arts and to invite art lovers to get together, not only for the Padnecwara, but also for other qualified Indonesian performing arts in rebuilding a better structure for the arts in the coming millennium.

The writer is a researcher and consultant of the performing arts.