Yayak caught between two worlds

Yayak caught between two worlds

Zora Rahman, Contributor, Cologne, Germany

"Salam Merdeka" (greetings to freedom), Yayak Yatmaka will call
out at every visitor climbing up the stairs to his apartment. His
strong voice, sharp glare and long gray hair and beard emphasize
the strong personality of the Javanese.

Freedom is definitely one of the most important values to the
artist from Yogyakarta, who had to leave his home country 11
years ago to find a place where he could retain his freedom of
expression. In his homeland, then under the rule of authoritarian
president Soeharto, art was often considered politically
dangerous.

That was what he experienced. He fled Indonesia because a
caricature of Soeharto put his life at stake. His second son had
just been born.

Although Yayak could escape the persecution and start a new
life in Cologne with his German wife and sons, he now has three,
half of him still belongs in Indonesia.

"Now I have one foot here and one foot there", he says.

Besides the emotional ties to his Indonesian family and
friends, Yayak still has a lot of contact and cooperation with
social and political groups in Indonesia. All his work -- be it
an illustration for the Indonesia House in Amsterdam or the cover
for the new CD of Taring Padi (an artists group in Yogyakarta) --
concerns Indonesia.

Only in the caricatures and illustrations he makes for local
media, does he sometimes discuss German topics.

The restless 47-year-old is an all-round talent. He is not
only a designer and painter, he is also a musician and a writer.
The fifth of 10 children, he learned from his childhood to
appreciate the arts. He played music in kindergarten and acted at
high school.

From 1977 until 1986 Yayak studied at the Institute for
Graphic Design at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and
worked as a freelancer for several magazines, including Pustaka
and Tempo. He was also an illustrator for the Legal Aid
Foundation (LBH) and won several prizes at a poster competition
on children rights.

"I studied architecture, but I hate drawing straight lines",
he joked.

But art for art's sake was not enough for him. Yayak was
active at the student's committee until the ITB -- famous for its
anti-Soeharto political activism -- was occupied by the army.
This was when Yayak and some of his friends looked for activities
outside the campus and became interested in alternative education
for children.

"We wanted to use art as an instrument for alternative
lessons, to make the children interested in their own culture",
he says. "Also because of political reasons: Lower class children
with their early experiences of hard working life were easier to
be made politically conscious. The more mature, the more
politicized."

So, from 1987 until 1991, Yayak became the coordinator for
Secretariat for Free Children in Indonesia (SAMIN) in Yogyakarta
-- an NGO that organizes alternative education for street
children.

Of course, art is not enough for complete education because it
is only part of the basic subjects. But for those children who do
not have the chance to go to school, art can be really good
education, for example practicing languages by playing theater or
learning to interact with others by playing music together.

After his "accident" with the Soeharto regime and his
departure from Indonesia, Yayak had to start over in Germany in
1992. In the beginning, still paralyzed by the forced exile, he
helped build up an international network and was working for
organizations like Orcades, Terres des Hommes and Unicef. He held
exhibitions in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and a lot of other
European cities.

"It was very difficult", Yayak says. "I had to learn again the
basics, about the different cultures, including different
perceptions, visions and ideals -- and, of course, about the
different forms of art."

He likes to work with subjects from the social realities. Over
the last five years he has been mainly focussing on child labor
in Asia.

"I want to show these pictures until the reality turns good",
he said. In his current exhibition in Cologne though, he shows
mainly women, maidens with very tender appearances and few
cloths, but always in a political context.

In his trilogy Who's the terrorist? for example, the artist
painted a Venus-like woman in front of masked, armed figures.

"I think, women are another way to show basic human problems
-- everybody was birthed by a woman", he said. "Actually, I am
just hiding myself behind the label artist: My work can never be
independent from political problems", he added.

The focus of his private life is, of course, at his Cologne
apartment close to the River Rhine. Because his studio is at home
and his wife works outside, he is the one who looks after the
children and their daily needs.

On his youngest child, 5, Yayak tries to provide what he could
not give to his elder children during his troubled years.

"I feel so sorry, that they could not experience more, how
beautiful their father's home country is. That you just have to
pick up the bananas there from the tree instead of buying them
for a lot of money in the supermarket."

But although he regrets losing some important things in life,
Yayak would act in the same way again. When he started his
political activities at the university in 1978, most of the
students could not imagine that it would be another 20 years
before the New Order regime finally fell.

"I was convinced to do the right thing, because the system
was wrong", he said. "I never thought about being afraid, there
was just no alternative for me."

It was not until after 1998 that Yayak could finally return to
Indonesia. One year later his children set foot on Indonesian
soil. But since they grew up in Germany, have a German way of
life, German education and German mother tongue, there are no
plans to return permanently.

"If we plant a tree, we always want to watch it -- how it
grows", he says. Nevertheless the idealist is still dreaming of
other seeds he wants to sow in Indonesia. "As long as there is a
chance, that the seed of a free education will grow, we have to
go on", Yayak says.

"I hope that we find new media to correct all the mistakes
that the New Order made. We should become more open and build
free education for a free people."