Fri, 15 Dec 2000

Muslim group protests painting exhibition

YOGYAKARTA: An exhibition of modern art by young artist Sigit Pius Kuncoro at Kedai Kebun art gallery here has been disrupted by a phone threat by a member of the Movement of Ka'ba Defender (GPK), a Muslim fundamentalist group.

The group claimed that the paintings exhibited at the gallery were pornographic works, and charged the gallery management with disturbing the Islamic fasting month, Ramadhan.

The result was that the exhibition, scheduled to last until Jan. 10, 2001, was abruptly closed just three hours after the opening ceremony on Tuesday, the artist's manager, Amrizal, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Amrizal said that an agreement between Sigit's manager and the owner of Kedai Kebun art gallery was reached and the exhibition was reopened on Wednesday and continued as scheduled, but the controversial paintings were hung facing the wall.

"We'll hang the paintings properly if there are any visitors wishing to view them, and we'll return them to face the wall as soon as the visitors leave the gallery," he said.

"No party has complained so far."

He admitted that eight of Sigit's works displayed at the gallery depicted images of naked people. "But none of them could bring viewers to entertain sexual fantasies except for someone abnormal, for Sigit does not compose realistic paintings."

"It's outrageous. How could they judge Sigit's paintings as pornographic works?" Amrizal said.

Sigit was born in Semarang in 1974 and graduated from the department of graphic design at Indonesian Institute of Art (ISI), Yogyakarta.

He recalled that a man, claiming to be a member of the Muslim group, called the gallery owner one day before the opening ceremony to demand the exhibition be canceled or the group would attack the gallery.

The caller also said that the group had warned the management about 'improper' art exhibits four times previously.

GPK is one of several fundamentalist groups in Yogyakarta that was reportedly involved in the recent attack on a dialog involving prostitutes and homosexuals in Kaliurang tourist resort. The discussion was sponsored by the Association of Indonesian Family Planning (PKBI). (44)