Sutanto preserves rural arts

Sutanto preserves rural arts

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post/Magelang, Central Java

Journalists and fellow artists often call him a village
provocateur. "I'm part of the villagers and I admire them for
their wisdom, art and culture. I have learned a lot from them,"
says artist Sutanto Mendut, who lives near Mendut Temple in
Magelang, Central Java.

On Aug. 15, the 51-year-old artist will again be a
"provocateur" as he will organize the 3rd Festival of the Five
Mountains at Gejayan village, Pakis district, Magelang, Central
Java, a daylong cultural event intended to channel the cultural
and artistic creativity of communities living around the five
mountains in the area, a group he says the government usually
pays little attention to.

"This festival will be a means through which orgasm in art
activities will be attained. Rural and mountain communities
posses, actually, a huge potential and like a volcano, this
potential, unchanneled, may explode at any time," said Sutanto.

Married to Japanese citizen Mami Kato, Sutanto, who organized
the 1st All-Java Mountain Festival in June 2004, will receive an
art award from the Central Java Arts Council in mid-August this
year.

"I have not responded to them yet. I have told the committee
that I will accept the award if they allow me to make a speech
during the ceremony. I work with the people, not alone," he told
The Jakarta Post.

Sutanto earned the nickname Adol Cangkem because he is very
good at convincing other people to agree with him. He has
successfully invited people from around the world to come to
events held at his studio or in the villages nestled on the
slopes of Mount Merapi, Mount Merbabu and Mount Sumbing.

Relying only on his cangkem (mouth), he organized, for
example, the 1st and 2nd World Cultural Congresses at his Mendut
Studio in 1993 and 1995. The second congress was divided into two
programs: World Artists Day and a speech festival.

"We only invited about 40 famous figures from Indonesia and
abroad to the event but, in fact, 56 people attended it all
together," he said, showing collection of newspaper and magazine
clippings about the event.

The six-day event, he said, only cost about Rp 1.3 million to
organize. "Most of the money was spent on telephone calls. I
directly contacted these famous figures by phone and this proved
to be a very effective means of communication to persuade great
figures in art and culture such as Gunawan Mohammmad, the late
Bagong Kussudiardjo and Tony Prabowo to come to the event."

Recently, Sutanto successfully persuaded and encouraged local
people to organize art and cultural events in the villages on the
slopes of Mount Merapi, Mount Merbabu and Mount Sumbing. Last
year, for example, he organized the Merapi Cultural Festival, the
Prayer from Five Mountains and many other events.

Sutanto agrees that sometimes, as his friends often say, he
seems to be just blurting out a barrage of words. Basically,
however, the way he speaks comes from his experience speaking
with virtually all layers of the community.

"I know a lot of people because I'm also a trader of antique
goods. I'm acquainted with people from all social classes. That's
why I can talk about things that you may not get from school.
Take for example, this Lasem batik. Is there any book about its
history?" he said, adding that this ancient batik was first made
by a lonely Chinese woman on the northern coast of Central Java.

His knowledge is mainly focused in cultural studies, a subject
that is now being promoted among academic circles. In fact, he
said, for the past decade he has been promoting the significance
of cultural studies. To pursue cultural studies, he added, you
only have to get along with the people that live in villages or
on the fringes of towns and cities to tap their precious but
hidden potential.

"If you wish to be more serious in these studies, you can
study the reliefs carved on Borobodur Temple. There are thousands
of reliefs and, put together, they may stretch about four
kilometers. These reliefs feature various dances and about 500
musical instruments. Imagine what a wealth of knowledge you would
get if you seriously studied all of these," said Sutanto, who
studied at the Indonesian Music Academy in Yogyakarta and the
School of Philosophy at Gadjah Mada University.

"When I study all these objects, I often imagine their makers.
Those involved in the construction of the Borobudur Temple must
have been extraordinary and multidimensional people. Those
carving the reliefs must have had an excellent background in
dance.

"Just look at the relief depicting a person playing a drum. He
is playing his instrument not only to accompany a dance piece,
but he himself is dancing with the beautiful movement of his
body. You will learn quite a lot if you carefully study the
reliefs at Borobodur Temple. This is part of the cultural studies
that few tourists visiting the temple are ready to undertake,"
said Sutanto, who sometimes serves as a tour guide for close
friends who want to learn more about the temple.

Sutanto has said that he wants to study from and imitate the
multidimensional artists in charge of building Borobodur Temple.
With his music background, Sutanto can get along with artists and
cultural activists from various fields. He is very close with
both contemporary and traditional artists.

During the day, for example, he might have a discussion with
artists from Jakarta, but at night he will be involved in an
exciting dialog with the people of Tutup Ngisor village on the
slopes of Mount Merapi.

One day he may sleep in a church and have an intense dialog
with a priest, but the next day he will have an intimate talk
with a Muslim cleric from an Islamic boarding school in Magelang.

Sutanto's artistic life has been shaped by adventures he has
had in life that are not confined to places or social classes.

Sometimes he is a musician and at other times he may be a
poet, a dancer, a craftsman, an actor, a seller of antique goods,
a politician, a writer or just a "provocateur". He can leave
people spellbound just with his fascinating way of speaking.

Artist Sujiwo Tejo wrote in Sutanto's book Cosmology of
Gendhing Gendheng that "people want to attend events held in
Mendut, Central Java, because of Sutanto".

With the power of his words Sutanto can encourage art
activities from one village to another. He has tirelessly fought
alongside people living around Borobudur Temple and the rural
people on the fringes of local towns to maintain the cultural and
artistic values that many other people have begun to abandon.

If allowed by the Central Java provincial administration, he
will make a speech during the ceremony marking the conferring of
the art award to him, as well as to Hajar Satoto (painter) and
Ahmad Tohari (novelist).

But if he cannot speak at the ceremony, Sutanto says, "Nek ora
oleh yo ora opo-opo, ora patheken." (That's all right if they
don't allow me, I won't have a skin disease.)