Nitiprayan, a suburban artists' village

Nitiprayan, a suburban artists' village

By Anis Suryani

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Vincent Meyer, a French musician once wrote to his Indonesian friend, Yanto. Part of the letter was quoted in Yogyakarta CCF French Cultural Center's La Revue publication of the April-May 2000 edition.

Meyer wrote: "September 1988, I had just come to Yogyakarta to teach note harmony at the School of Music of the city's Indonesian Institutes of the Arts (ISI) and I was looking for a house to rent. We met at a small cafe for tourists near Sosrowijayan. You knew a house for rent but its location was far from the center of the city. You added 'it has banana trees in its yard'. Banana trees! It was a magic word of exoticism for a Frenchman like me at that time. We visited the house. It was like at the end of the world. We had to leave Jl. Patangpuluhan, through soil path, across the beautiful rice field. I decided to stay in Nitiprayan.

"I did not know, but I was the first bule (white person) who ever stayed here. Since then some other people like me were fascinated by the comforting view, the color of the sun's rays reflected on the water at the rice field, and the clean and light air. Yet, not only foreigners stay here, there are also local artists who live here ... I'm glad to know that there are a lot of houses where artists are painting all day. Do you remember the paintings of Tosin before he changed his life? He was talented."

Now, 12 years on, Nitiprayan at the southern outskirts of Yogyakarta is still an attractive place for artists to live, especially young ones. Tosin is an artist, but he no longer lives in the village. But he carved his name from there. Entang Wiharso, who now lives in Prambanan, is another artist who started his profession in Nitiprayan.

Dadang Christianto is a senior artist who lived in Nitiprayan before moving with his family to Australia to teach at Darwin University. Now he lets local people use his house in Nitiprayan for village activities while he and his family live in Australia.

Successful artists who still live in Nitiprayan include Bali born artists Putu Sutawijaya and Made Sukadana. Dozens of other young artists who came to the village the over the years now make Nitiprayan an "artist village". There, artists live side by side with local people whose professions are mostly farmers and traders.

Budi Ubrux, a young artist who was born and grew up in a village near Nitiprayan, moved there in 1995.

"I have more chance to chat with other artists here," said Budi, explaining why he decided to move to Nitiprayan.

Budi, who has worked as a billboard painter, is now preparing his solo painting exhibition at Yogyakarta Bentara Budaya building early next year.

Just opposite Budi's house, lives Dwi Setiawan, another young artist from Magelang, Central Java, whose works have been collected by some famous collectors. Just like Budi, Dwi also has lived in Nitiprayan since 1995 for similar reasons.

In front of Budi and Dwi's houses lives Agus Mahmudi, another young artist whose speciality is painting dancers. A few blocks from Mahmudi's house lives Tarman, who is faithful in "recording the exoticism of the Javanese community".

Tarman's neighbor is a female artist named Dyah Yulianti, whose art works are very much inspired by the myth about supernatural creatures in her home village in Kalimantan.

Cheap rents

There are many other young artists living in Nitiprayan, such as contemporary fine artist Heri Kris, and sculptor Hedi Haryanto to mention some of them.

Low rental fees -- many three-room houses are rented for less than Rp 1 million a year -- is a major reason why artists are interested in living there.

Space for studios is available for hire at low rates. Dwi, for example, needs only Rp 2,5 million to hire 100 square meters of land for 10 years.

According to Dwi, the existence of Fine Arts high School (SMSR) at Jl. Bugisan, the main street leading to Nitiprayan, is a major reason for Nitoprayan's growing popularity.

Many of the students of the schools stay in dormitories rented by residents of nearby villages, including Nitiprayan. Many of the tenants choose art as their profession and stay at the village after they finish their studies, or even drop out of the school.

"Initially I stayed in a dormitory I rented for Rp 25,000 a month for a single room. As I felt comfortable here, I chose to hire a house on a yearly basis," Dwi said.

Dwi never finished his studies at SMSR and learned art by doing.

The artists and locals live in harmony. The artists living in Nitiprayan do not make an exclusive community. "We pay each other visits and chat," he said.

They, too, participate in the village social activities such as ronda (community-initiated security system).

The good relations between local people and the artists can also be seen from the way landlords communicate with the tenants.

Dwi, who shares the same yard with his landlord Kasimin for example, has treated Kasimin as his foster parent. "I've been part of his family," Dwi said.

Even Kasimin's brother in-law Muryanto, a graduate of a junior high school, has worked for two years taking care of Dwi's studio. Muryanto's tasks are preparing painting tools, canvas, cleaning the studio and taking care of the paintings.

Many other Nitiprayan indigenous youth are beginning to show interest in learning how to paint or become an artist or study at the Indonesian Institutes of the Arts (ISI). Some of the amateur artists have even taken part in painting bazaars at the annual Yogyakarta Art Festival.