Jakarta lacks sense of art: Sculptor

Jakarta lacks sense of art: Sculptor

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): Sculptors of public art in the capital city of
Jakarta should always be ready to be disappointed as their works
might be abused either by the city administration or people in
general.

Such condition occurred several times in the past. Some public
art is neglected, other works are poorly modified or even
demolished for the sake of development.

Many parties have protested such poor treatment many times but
what they deemed as uncivilized deeds occurred again and again.

The recent removal of the statue of the (late) great poet
Chairil Anwar, located at Monas square in Central Jakarta, is the
latest example.

Initially the statue of Chairil, whose poems are mostly about
nationalism, was located in front of the Diponegoro monument at
the northern part of Monas park, but the statue -- measuring two
and a half times life size -- was then be moved to the western
part of the Diponegoro monument.

Many parties are of the opinion that the administration do not
consider artistic taste in placing public statues.

"I placed the statue as such so that the two art works
(Diponegoro and Chairil) supported the monumental aspect of
Monas," said the statue's sculptor Arsono, "for that reason I
calculated any aspect regarding the placement."

The "Chairil" was made facing to the north, because nearby was
the location of the so-called (former) Chairil Anwar Park, the
place where the poet usually meditated for inspiration.

Two plates containing Chairil's poems were pasted in the
pedestal.

Late last year the sculptor was stunned when he found that his
work was no longer there. The original pedestal had been
demolished and the bust was simply put at the western part of the
Diponegoro monument on "a wide pedestal that is not proportional
to the bust," said Arsono.

The marble plate containing Chairil's famous poet Krawang-
Bekasi has disappeared while the one titled Diponegoro was just
pasted into the pedestal of the Diponegoro statue.

"It (the work) is totally ridiculous, moreover it clearly
shows that the Jakarta administration (which manages Monas park)
did not consider the artistic aspects when locating public
statues. They should have consulted me first before doing
something about the work.

"It is easy to know the sculptors of each public statue in
Jakarta because the city museum and restoration agency has
published a book about the city monuments, including the
information on the name of each works," he added.

Arsono said further that he completed the statue in 1984 as an
order from the Jakarta administration. At that time the Monas
park had been "decorated" with statues of Diponegoro and M.H.
Thamrin, the famous Betawi-national hero.

The Diponegoro bronze statue, created by Italian artist
Cobertaldo in 1965, depicted the Javanese prince wearing a robe
and turban and riding a horse.

The Thamrin statue was also made by Arsono in 1982 and now is
placed at the western part of the Monas park.

Later in 1988, the administration also placed the so-called
Ikada statue to commemorate the huge gathering to support
Indonesian independence in 1945 at the southern part of the
biggest park in Jakarta.

"The administration allocated parts of the Monas park to place
some statues of national heroes as a kind of immortalization of
their spirit of struggle. I then immediately suggested that the
statues should not only be about military figures because heroes
are not always those struggling with guns," said the sculptor who
made several portrait statues during the late first Indonesian
president Sukarno and former president Soeharto era.

It was deplorable if the spirit was not felt only because of
improper positioning, Arsono added.

Stronger criticism was uttered by architect and urbanist Marco
Kusumawijaya, sculptor Iriantine Karnaya and the director of the
Taman Ismail Marzuki cultural center Wisnu Murti Ardjo.

Marco said that such kind of action could be categorized as
an ethical offense against artists.

"For me it is something savage, because not appreciating arts
is an uncivilized deed," he said.

But he added that the offense occurred probably because of the
ignorance of the administration's officials.

Iriantine agreed that art works could not be treated just like
any other property because artists always have specific
calculations for all aspects of their art, for example regarding
its positioning.

"Thus, I can sympathize with the sculptor of the Chairil
statue when the city administration just removed his work without
prior notification, let alone consultation," she said.

Iriantine deeply regretted that the city park agency merely
consists of field officers who do not have enough knowledge of
art.

"It's okay if they don't have experts on art. If it's their
shortcoming, why don't they build a relationship with artists,
for example, so that they won't be considered neglecting the arts
when they need to do something on the artwork?" she said.

She admitted, however, that certain development projects
sometime even supported the existence of statues.

According to Wisnu, in many cases the city administration had
no sense of art appreciation "only because they do not know what
they are doing."

"The administration seems to consider that sculptors no longer
have rights on the statues they created after they are installed
in public places. It's certainly not like that, public art can't
be treated like furniture you can remove as you like.

"I think the administration should first ask for inputs from
the artists before something is done to their work," Wisnu said.

But comments from the administration officials reflected that
they treat public arts merely as "furniture" as the institution
has the authority to do whatever they want.

"It's just like we buy certain things, and they then belong to
us after the transaction," said the head of the planning
subdivision of the Jakarta Park Agency, Setiadi.

Moreover, he argued that the statue's removal in Monas park
was just a temporary one to make way for the Rp 9.3 billion Monas
beautification project.

However, head of the park agency Dadang Ruskandar apologized
for the misdeed. "Yes, we did not consult the sculptor before the
work was underway. I'm sorry because we had no contact with him,"
he said.

For this reason, Dadang said, he had declared that the Chairil
statue should be returned to its original condition, "I will call
the sculptor to listen to what he wishes."