Batik represents RI in London Festival of Architecture

A swirl of giant batik with the theme “Landscape of Diversity” flows through South Molton Lane in central London’s exclusive Mayfair district.

The sight is rare, not only because batik is hard to come by in London, but also because instead of fabric, the creation is made of plywood.

The installation was the work of six enthusiastic Indonesian architects who called themselves Alur Design, representing their country in the 2010 London Festival of Architecture (LFA2010). Five of the group are among the top students from AA (Architectural Association) School of Architecture: Ardes Perdhana, Kuncara Wicaksana, Prama Milyardi, Rizki Nindito and Olivia Putihrai. Monique Suksmaningsih, the sixth, is a graduate from TU Delft, the Netherlands.

“We used a batik pattern as the basis of our idea because it represents Indonesia and batik is widely used in daily life from birth to the grave” explained Olivia. “UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as a ‘Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’, and we use Kawung pattern because it is the oldest design.”

The bold Kawung pattern makes a strong visual impact on the installation.

“The batik installation is so big that it’s impossible to display in the Indonesian Embassy,” said Tumpal Hutagalung, the economic counselor of the Indonesian Embassy in London.

“We created a piece of Indonesian culture translated into English, based on what London brings to us: A new method of using materials, technology and a new design method,” explained Kuncara, about his team’s contemporary piece.

“The project became much more interesting and challenging when we realized how limited our time was as full-time professionals, and that the sponsor’s funding was far less than what we’d expected.”

 “We are grateful that the company that we work for supported us by providing a meeting place for after-office hours work and also sponsored our work,” said Monique.

The six all have full-time jobs working in international architecture companies.

“For seven months we found time in after-office hours, starting from 9 p.m. Many a night we stayed up until 3 a.m. And at weekends we worked from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on this project” said Kuncara.

The six members’ strengths complement each other.

Rizki said: “We have a super team, dedicated to the project. Each has different opinions but we fill in each other’s gaps. We believe in our ability. Our strength is in research analysis and design”.

Some members had international exhibition experience, such as Olivia in Amsterdam and Monique in Kuala Lumpur, but none had experience doing such work in London.

“It’s a different ball game. The whole team was involved right from coordinating until the installation stage” says Olivia.

“The Welcoming City” was what London wanted to be labeled in LFA2010, and that was also the theme of the brief given through the British Council to the participants who entered last year’s competition — with the winners’ works displayed in this year’s festival under the International Architecture Showcase.

Collaborating with embassies and cultural institutes around the world, Indonesia was the only country from Southeast Asia among the 34 participating nations.

The London Festival of Architecture 2010, which ran from 19 June–4 July, demonstrated how the city supports anything to promote London. Three hundred events were spread throughout the city, focusing in three areas on weekends for activities: central, east and south London.

The central district pays homage to the 19th century London urban planning architect John Nash, whose ambitious projects introduced comfortable pedestrian paths to the well-known upper-class Marylebone and Regents Park neighborhoods.

He also planned Trafalgar Square, the Marble Arch, the gate to Hyde Park, remodeled the area around Buckingham Palace and the canal links through London to the River Thames. Architecture is seen as an important part of the city’s history and also the life and future of the country.

There’s even a statue of John Nash, who’s well known for his 1811 Nash master plan, in Marylebone.

“In the LFA, we can clearly see architecture as part of the community and public space,” said Monique.

Talks and debates were held under such themes as “The Triumph of the Pedestrian City”, which discussed whether London was sufficiently pedestrian friendly, and how to overcome challenges of shrinking space, or Architectural Charities, which explained the challenge of advocating and training in a disaster zone or poor and conflict areas.

In the high streets of East London, LFA embraces retailers such as Banana Republic, Anthropologie and Austin Reed to have installations by artists and architecture firms as their window displays.

“London is very metropolitan; and even though each community is opening up to new culture, it still can maintain its identity,” said Kuncara.

Meanwhile, London’s Bankside — on the south side of the River Thames — with its Urban Forest theme, invited children to create buildings made of sugar cubes. Irish artist Brendan Jamison made a 2-meter wide model of the Tate Modern from 71,908 sugar cubes weighing 224 kilograms.

“I’ve been fascinated with building models since I was very young, starting with Lego” said Jamison, while he stacked sugar cubes into what looked like the base of an oval building shaped like a rocket.

In a back street area under a train railway bridge in Union Street, a patch of undeveloped land was transformed into a lush green community garden.

“The developer of this land loves our idea and supported LFA project by kindly lending us this piece of land for three months,” Moira Lascelles, LFA’s consultant curator, told The Jakarta Post.

The garden offered a plant swapping program, a toad-spawn pool for children, a bus shelter decorated with children’s drawings and a theater stage made of recycled products. All the projects in the Urban Orchard were recycled.

Used tires were stacked with a plastic sheet on top as stage lamps, and shredded tires replaced gravel on the garden paths.

In 2012, London will host an LFA biennale as the gateway for the London Olympics and Alur Design is keen to participate.

“We would like to take Indonesian heritage to another level with a new design method with a piece that interacts with the public, to take the modernity of Indonesia further into the future without losing its identity,” Lascelles said, adding that Indonesia, with its richness in culture and diverse architecture, should take note and be proud to exhibit and promote itself to the world with a similar event.

As Rizki said: “All it needs is integrated support from the government, the city mayor, Indonesian companies as well as from the public to make it happen.”

Links:

www.alurdesign.com

www.lfa2010.org

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/07/29/batik-represents-ri-london-festival-architecture.html

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Tintin Wulia: ‘Attacking’ a wall

Visitors attending the opening of Tintin Wulia’s solo exhibition at Ark Gallery tonight are likely to be shocked when asked to partake in what may seem as an act of pure vandalism.

But to do so, they have to pay first: a colored grid a la Mondriaan will be projected on the wall, with one of its colored squares awarded to the highest bidder at the auction led by well-known auctioneer Amir Sidharta.

After the auction, only one visitor will be allowed to “attack” the wall — which involves making a hole in the selected square. By the eighth projected grid, the wall will be totally ruined, but probably still standing. The process will be recorded on three cameras — hung in three different sections of the ceiling — that will be taking pictures from different angles and time ranges, thus producing art of a different kind. 

This is Tintin Wulia’s way of visualizing what is happening in our world, where efforts to break down freedom-hampering “walls” exist, but are still too few. The work is titled Constructing Holes, it is part of the exhibition “De-Constructing Walls”. 

This is the most forceful of Tintin’s exploration of identity, mobility and boundary issues, where she has moved away from her usual subtle aesthetic and delicate though pungent critique. 

However the basic remains the same, perhaps a bit tamer as her explorations show the multiple realities in life. Tintin has always dreamed of a world where one could fly without constraints, the way Peter Pan could.

As a teenager, she wished Peter Pan would lose his shadow in her neighborhood, and find her if she could fly, which she thought would be possible if she had happy thoughts. But of course she discovered humans like us can only fly with a passport and a valid visa, which she thought is really “shit*y”.

Her installation titled (Re)collection of Togetherness at the Jakarta Biennale was staggering, as was her work of kites made of her family’s personal documents tied to razor blades. 

While such works germinated from her personal experience as a Chinese Indonesian, the issue of mobility has become global with people increasingly moving around the world, bringing up issues of borders, nationality, identity and “belonging”. 

Her research becomes more playful, as her works become increasingly interactive, while she “maps” a world in progress. 

Recently she asked a group of customers (almost all expats) — having dinner at Potato Head restaurant — how they had moved from one country to another and where they would like to move to if they could chose.

Using peanuts, chilli and other spices, as well as flowers, the group of about 90 people indicated the places they had moved to, or would like to move to, thus “creating” a new world population map.

On this map, one could clearly see more and more people moving towards Asia compared to Europe or America, and less toward Brazil.

Earlier Tintin had performed the same stunt in Patna, India, with flowers, but unlike her work with spices in Jakarta, she created a map made of flowers beforehand, calling the performance and the video Nous ne notons pas les fleurs (We do not record flowers). 

Afterwards, she asked her audience to mark their travels from one state to another. The work was originally presented as an installation and interactive performance at Soil Bite, Khoj International Workshop 2009 in Patna, India, before she turned it into a video triptych with the same title. 

The work, she says, was informed by the local context — Bihar, the state of which Patna is the capital, has the highest rate of emigration in India, and is part of the eastern region ridden with border problems.

Tintin borrowed the title from an excerpt of Saint Exupéry’s little book Le Petit Prince, where a geographer tells the Little Prince that geographers do not record flowers when they draw maps because, unlike the earth, flowers are ephemeral. Tintin said she used flowers precisely because they were ephemeral. 

While the actions and interactions in Tintin’s works are interesting, videos made of these are even more fascinating. Through her videos, Tintin Wulia, a trained musician, architect and film composer pursuing her PhD in visual art at RMIT university in Australia, portrays the exciting ways new media can be art showing at once different perspectives and layers of reality — something inconceivable in the past. 

During the last decade, Tintin has exhibited her works internationally in private and public institutions such as Osage Gallery, Van Abbemuseum, London’s Institute of Contemporary Art, the Istanbul Biennale and Yokohama Triennale.

As I visited Ark Gallery on Sunday, Tintin was preparing her exhibition with curator Alia Swastika. I cannot wait to see the videos of Construction of the Holes.

‘Deconstruction of a wall’

Solo exhibition by Tintin Wulia
Ark Gallery
Jl. Senopati 92 Jakarta

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/30/tintin-wulia-%E2%80%98attacking%E2%80%99-a-wall.html

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Bringing the World to Jakarta

The list of complaints about living in Jakarta seems endless, with traffic and pollution easily taking the top spots. There are also others who criticize the capital for its lack of community-based evening activities.

The people who complain about the latter have probably never set foot in the Jakarta International Community Center, a meeting point for expats and locals, and a bustling center that offers a wide range of courses and activities for both children and adults.

Founded in 2001 by two Indian women, Molina Hazuria and Veena Singh, JICC’s original aim was to disseminate information to new expats in Jakarta.

In fact, the center’s aim of helping new arrivals get settled in the capital has been incorporated into its mission statement, which states that “Living in a foreign land requires more than curiosity and a sense of adventure, it demands knowledge, the proper attitude and skills to be able to adapt to a new culture.”

“They also wanted to give people who had just arrived from overseas a place where they could feel at home,” said Nova Farida Lestari, program manager at JICC.

“They wanted to build a place that bridges the gap between the local community and expats.”

Located along a quiet street in the popular Kemang district in South Jakarta, everyone is welcome at the JICC.

The cozy sofas in the main room provide the perfect setting for both guests and members to have a refreshing drink and chat.

Bookworms can pick out a book from a stack of novels, while music lovers can sit down at the piano and entertain others.

In the garden of the house, a swimming pool and some wooden sun lounges make for a pleasant afternoon.

However, helping expats make the transition in Jakarta only represents part of JICC’s current projects.

The center also holds regular classes and courses for both its members and visitors.

“We have a lot of different activities on our schedule,” Nova said, “from cooking classes to health classes and also courses in the field of arts and culture, like painting and dancing.”

And JICC’s program for the next three months reveal the community’s effort to make Jakartans’ life more colorful.

According to Nova, the most popular classes for children are taekwondo and the little chef cooking class. “Normally, these two classes fill up really fast,” she said.

By joining JICC’s taekwondo classes, the little ones not only have fun, but also learn valuable life skills.

 While the classes help children improve their physical fitness, they also teach them basic life skills, such as teamwork, following instructions and respecting others.

The little chef cooking classes have been popular because the kids enjoy showing off their creations to family members.

“When they are done, they can take home the cupcakes, cookies and donuts they have made during the class and show it to their parents,” Nova said.

The center’s classes for adults have also been a hit, with language courses attracting the most participants. “We offer Bahasa Indonesia classes for adults,” Nova said.

“People who will stay in Indonesia for a while want to understand the language, of course, so they can easily interact with the locals.”

The cooking classes are also popular among the women, Nova said. And it is not only Indonesian cuisine that is being offered on the menu.

Culinary lessons range from how to make sushi to whipping up delicious Italian pasta.

While JICC finds most of the teachers for its classes externally, sometimes they don’t even have to look beyond the community’s walls.

“We encourage our members to teach the classes themselves,” she said.

“Whenever we see that someone has a special skill or talent, we try to convince them to share it with the others. For example, one of our members from Mexico is offering a cooking class on how to make fajitas and tortillas.”

Today, JICC has over 800 members of various nationalities. But even if the majority are from abroad, JICC also encourages Indonesians to join their community.

“Our basic idea is that this community should be open to all nationalities,” Nova said. “So of course, Indonesians are also most welcome. Right now, I would say, it is 80 percent foreigners and 20 percent locals.”

Other highlights on the center’s program include yoga and tai chi, silk and oil painting, gamelan and Javanese dancing, as well as day trips to various interesting sites in Jakarta.

The community even offers English courses for domestic helpers of expat families to help ease the communication gap.

Nova said that she enjoys being a part of the big JICC family. “It’s great to meet people from different nationalities on a daily basis,” she said.

“There’s always something new to learn and to explore for me here.”


Jakarta International Community Center, Jl. Kemang Dalam X, No. E6A, South Jakarta. Tel: 021 7179 281
 
For JICC’s full program from Oct. to Dec., log on to www.jicconline.com.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifestyle/bringing-the-world-to-jakarta/398918

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Museum Aceh

Museum Negeri Banda Aceh, merupakan salah satu tempat rekreasi bagi masyarakat. Baik dari kalangan umum, mahasiswa, pelajar hingga murid Sekolah dasar (SD).  Selain dari Banda Aceh, pengunjung juga datang dari berbagai daerah di Provinsi Aceh, khususnya pada hari libur sekolah.


Hal inilah yang sempat DETaK lihat saat berkunjung ke Museum tersebut, remaja berpakaian putih abu-abu terlihat asik mengamati berbagai benda sejarah yang terpajang di museum. Sesekali mereka bertanya kepada pengawas museum tentang benda-benda yang terpajang. “Kebetulan kami sedang mendapat tugas dari sekolah. Selain untuk belajar, ternyata Museum bisa menjadi tempat rekreasi yang bermanfaat,” ujar Husna, salah seorang pelajar SMU kepada DETaK, 27 Januari 2010.

Namun, jumlah pengunjung ini, umumnya hanya ramai pada masa liburan saja. Bila pada hari-hari biasa, pengunjung sangat sedikit.

Menurut Ketua Seksi Koleksi Museum Aceh , Edeh Warningsih, pengunjung yang datang bukan hanya dari kalangan anak-anak sekolah saja, juga ada dari kalangan mahasiswa maupun masyrakat biasa, yang masih peduli dan ingin tahu dengan benda-benda yang di tinggalkan oleh pahlawan kita dulu.


Namun, sebut Edeh Warningsih, pengunjung yang datang lebih banyak pada musim liburan sekolah saja atau pengunjung musiman. Sedangkan anak-anak sekolah memang lebih sering datang. Karena itu, pihaknya membuka waktu kunjung museum dari hari Selasa sampai Minggu.

Menariknya, ternyata pengunjung museum Aceh ini bukan hanya dari Aceh, bahkan pengunjung Museum yang menyimpan berbagai benda purbakala Aceh ini didatangi parawisatawan dari luar negeri, seperti Belanda, misalnya.

“Beberapa saat lalu, banyak pengunjung dari luar negeri yang kemari. Mereka adalah anak-cucu dari petinggi Belanda yang pernah membangun museum ini,” ungkap Edeh Warningsih.

Museum Aceh sendirimemiliki dua buah bangunan yang terpisah. Yaitu, satu gedung yang memamerkan benda-benda bersejarah atau sering disebut Gedung Pameran Tetap, sedangkan gedung satunya lagi adalah Rumoh Aceh.

Untuk Gedung Pameran tetap, terdiri dari empat lantai. Disinilah benda-benda sejarah Aceh, mulai dari masa prasejarah hingga masa perjuangan melawan penjajah, dipamerkan. Mulai dari benda sejarah yang kecil maupun benda sejarah yang besar, seperti foto-foto atau lukisan, batu nisan, mata uang, peralatan berburu, senjata, pelaminan, pakaian adat dan lain sebagainya.

Dari segi koleksi benda-benda tersebut juga masih terjaga. “Jumlah koleksi yang masih ada di meseum ini mencapai 5.964 koleksi,” ungkap Edeh Warningsih.

Selain itu, benda sejarah yang terdapat di mesum ini pun sering di dipinjamkan untuk dipamerkan. Sebagaimana pameran benda-benda kuno pada acara Pekan Kebudayaan Aceh (PKA) lalu. Bahkan, sesekali dipinjamkan ke Luar Negeri. “Barang-barang yang telah dipinjam atau dipakai untuk event-event sepeti PKA itu, kami mengadakan pengawasan yang ketat sampai barang tersebut dikembalikan,” kata Yudi Andika, selaku bendahara museum.

Upaya ini, sebut Andika,  dilakukan untuk menhindari kehilangan dan kerusakan barang-barang yang telah dipinjamkan. “ Jika ada barang-barang yang telah dipinjamkan itu hilang akan kami buat Berita Acara, harus ada konfirmasi dan asuransi. Namu Alhamdulillah, hingga saat ini belum ada yang hilang.

Selain itu, untuk menjaga benda-benda tersebut, manajemen museum juga melakukan pembersihan benda-benda di museum. Biasanya, pembersihan dilakukan pada hari Senin, dimana pada hari tersebut para pengunjung dilarang untuk berkunjung.

Sayangnya, sebagaimana informasi yang DETaK peroleh, masih banyak benda sejarah Aceh yang belum bisa dikumpulkan di museum ini. Banyak benda sejarah Aceh yang berada ditangan masyarakat berpindah kepada kolektor benda sejarah karena sejumlah uang. Bahkan, tidak sedikit benda sejarah Aceh yang berada diluar negeri. ***

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‘Mondosiyo’: A ritual of victory over cruelty

Members of the Javanese community who embrace philosophy or mysticism are accustomed to hearing their character described according to the wuku, the seven-day period constituting the 210-day Javanese calendar. The 14th wuku in this system is called Mondosiyo.

The Javanese believe wuku, which have different names like Sinta, Julungwangi, Dhukut, play an important role in shaping human behavior. Those born under Mondosiyo, for instance, are supposed to be more inclined to help people in trouble.

Some Javanese are convinced Mondosiyo has an auspicious influence on public life, and thus deem it necessary to celebrate it. The people in the hamlet of Pancot, on the slopes of Mt. Lawu near Surakarta, is one such community.

Locals welcome the arrival of Mondosiyo with the tradition of resik desa or village cleanup. This ritual

is held every 210 days, on Tuesday kliwon (the 5th day of the Javanese five-day week).

This centuries-old tradition in Pancot is derived from the myth of Prabu Baka, a cruel king who oppressed and robbed locals of their wealth while also eating them to increase his supernatural powers.

Putut Tetuko, a knight from Pringgondani hermitage (later known as Eyang Kancanegara) finally killed the king.

As narrated by hamlet elders, the name Pancot originates from a fight between Prabu Baka and Putut Tetuko, where the knight placated the king to the ground (pancot in the local tongue). The king’s head hit a stone called Batu Gilang. Later, garlic grew out of his canines that fell into the soil, and shallots grew from his molars. Both plants are Pancot’s main crops today.

Prabu Baka made a dying wish to have the arrival of this wuku period, Mondosiyo, marked with a village cleanup ritual, with offerings presented in sacred places such as Punden Bale Pathokan (fight scene), Batu Gilang and Kancanegara’s Pringgodani hermitage in Pancot. The core ritual now takes place in Bale Pathokan, where Batu Gilang is kept and revered.

The liberation of the Pancot people from the arbitrary rule of Prabu Baka has been observed ever since, in the hamlet’s Mondosiyo ritual.

This ritual recently began on Sunday pon (the 3rd day of the five-day week). Two days before the peak of Mondosiyo, Pancot villagers gathered rice to cook a gandhik (a kind of food) as an offering, as well as a goat and dozens of free-range chickens as main dishes.

The next morning, Monday wage (the 4th day of the five-day week), all the offerings were taken to the houses of communal elders for around-the-clock prayers.

On Monday evening, several village members visited sacred places striking small gongs, notifying the public to join Mondosiyo rituals the following morning.

The peak of the ritual began on Tuesday at 7 a.m. Community elders and hamlet figures took the goat and chickens to Bale Pathokan to be slaughtered. A Reog (tiger-mask dance) parade followed, with thousands of villagers packing the paths leading to the site of Prabu Baka. At this site, elders bathed Batu Gilang with the water of fermented cassava, believed to ward off the wrath of the malicious king.

The ceremony reached a climax when the crowd scrambled to catch dozens of chickens that were set free. Local residents believe the Mondosiyo chickens bring fortune and safety to those capable of catching them. Not surprisingly, this spectacle has become focal point of the ritual.

According to Pancot hamlet chief Sulardiyanto, the chickens are released by people who had vowed to do so.

“They represent the gratefulness of some residents. They believe their requests made before Batu Gilang will be fulfilled. If their wishes are to be granted, they are obliged to free chickens to keep their vows,” he said.

Sulardiyanto added the ritual was also meant to serve as a form of reverence and appreciation for the community’s ancestors. Through Mondosiyo, locals commemorate the victory of their forefathers over the evil Prabu Baka.

On the evening before the main event, residents gather for prayers to present the offerings and beg to God Almighty for safety and prosperity.

“The village cleanup as part of Mondosiyo also signifies introspection for self-purification of all negative elements,” Sulardiyanto said.

Mondosiyo is not just a community festival. Through the tradition marked every seven month, the local community fosters an atmosphere of harmony and peace. Reverence for village ancestors is believed to have encouraged social harmony in the community.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/07/02/%E2%80%98mondosiyo%E2%80%99-a-ritual-victory-over-cruelty.html

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Solace found in temple festival

His real name is I Kadek Astika, but the 31 year old prefers to be called Kadek Dewi, a feminine name.

 Last Sunday, Kadek and thousands of Hindus attended Bale Paselang, a major religious festival at Sibetan’s largest temple, Pura Pasar Agung.

Because the temple lies atop a small hill, the crowd had to navigate along a muddy, narrow road  blanketed with cold mist.

Having waited for years for that festival — the last one was held 32 years ago, Kadek trekked along the path with burning enthusiasm.

He wore a traditional Balinese male costume, including udeng headgear, light make up, and his nails were painted glossy orange.

During the main ritual, Kadek was assigned to Bale Paselang, a six-pillar pavilion in the temple’s inner sanctum, and the main focus of the temple festival. There, he assisted High Priestess Ida Pedanda Istri Karang in preparing the offerings and the ritual paraphernalia.

“Finally I could contribute my energy and time to this religious festival. The fact that I was tasked with assisting the officiating high priest has clearly improved my social standing as a transgender,” he said.

His main task, and the one he was most proud of, involved  decorating and dressing up the three statues inside the pavilion. Those statues represented the physical manifestations of the visiting gods. One was clearly a statue of a god, and the other one of a goddess. The most interesting statue was the third one, that of a god dressed in a woman’s costume. The statue also wore make-up.

For Kadek, the third statue was some sort of divine confirmation that transgenders have a place in the divine arrangement of the universe.

“I first found out about the existence of this ‘transgender’ deity two years ago when I visited the High Priestess’ house to learn about offerings,” he recalled.

Prior to the commencement of the temple festival, Kadek often visited the High Priestess’ house and spent time helping the local women make offerings for Bale Paselang. This had won him many friends and support.

“The essence of the Bale Paselang temple festival is love. It is also held to commemorate the time when the gods descended upon this earth to help mankind,” High Priestess Ida Pedanda Istri Karang said.

A noted Hindu scholar and executive member of the Hindu council, I Ketut Wiana, attended the ritual and believed the age-old festival offered important contemporary value.

“It is about gender equality and mainstreaming, about a harmonious and equal relationship between man and woman,” he said.

Wiana pointed out the third statue as the local interpretation of Ardhanariswara, an ultimate form of Lord Siwa, half god and half goddess.

Then he gazed at a sheet of white cloth that bore the images of  Semara and Ratih hung in the Bale Paselang. In Balinese Hinduism, not one, but two divine beings are responsible for love and the spreading of love: the immortal couple of Semara and Ratih.

One of the highlights of the Bale Paselang festival was Majejiwa, during which a group of adherents performed a ritual enacting the dialogue between Semara and Ratih.

“All those symbols, offerings and ritual movements send us a clear message that man and woman complement each other and that only through an equal and mutually beneficial cooperation will they be able to achieve their objectives,” Wiana added.

Toward the end of the ritual, Kadek regretted not having brought a camera to record the festival.

“I want to document this festival and later on share pictures and the meaning [of this festival] with my transgender friends. A large number of transgenders in Bali are still hiding their gender orientation from their families,” he said.

Kadek once worked for GAYa Dewata, an NGO focusing on advocacy work targeting gay, lesbian and transgender communities in Bali. Now, he works for a government-run regional body for women and children’s protection in Karangasem.

The Bale Paselang temple festival was a revelation for Kadek.

“I never asked for this male physique. I know that in my soul, I am a woman,” he said.

A Sibetan farmer, I Ketut Patra, eloquently defined Kadek Astika/Dewi’s existence in the following way:

“There is day and there is night. Kadek is the twilight, and we all have to live with day, night and twilight on each and every single day of our existence.”

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/08/26/solace-found-temple-festival.html

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Putroe Phang dan Sejarah 15 Tahun

Tanpa terasa, 15 tahun telah berlalu. Lenggak lenggok para penari, jerit tangis pemain drama hingga alunan merdu suara penyair, telah menjadi sejarah yang tidak mampu terlupakan. 

Pertengahan Desember 1994, dua mahasiswa menemui Drs. Soekardi Sukirman selaku Pembantu Rektor (PR) III Unsyiah saat itu. Mereka terlihat asyik berbincang-bincang berbagai permasalahan yang terjadi di kampus Unsyiah hingga permasalahan kreatifitas mahasiswa khususnya yang berkaitan dengan seni. Kebetulan, saat itu akan diadakan Dialog Kebudayaan.


Kedua mahasiswa itu, T.M. Zulfikar dan Muhammad Sulaiman, mempertanyakan perihal Unit Kegiatan Mahasiswa (UKM) seni yang tidak berkembang di Unsyiah. Saat itu belum ada jawaban pasti.
Akan tetapi, perjuangan tetap dilanjutkan. Berbagai usaha, mulai dari kegiatan hingga pertemuan-pertemuan rutin terus dilakukan. Lima belas tahun silam, tepatnya pada tanggal 14 juni 1995, perjuangan dan usaha keras tersebut membuahkan hasil. UKM Seni Putroe Phang (S-PP) lahir setelah disahkannya Surat Keputusan oleh PR III Unsyiah.
UKM ini memiliki tiga cabang seni, yaitu musik modern, musik klasik dan tari. Bahkan, hingga saat ini, Putroe Phang telah memiliki lebih kurang 50 anggota yang aktif.
Visi misi dari UKM S-PP adalah untuk menampung minat dan bakat di bidang seni sebagai ajang kreativitas dan menjaga kelestarian kebudayaan Aceh dapat terus eksis, serta mengadakan pelatihan, pengembangan dan penelitian seni, dan pendampingan pada generasi muda sehingga tercipta bibit-bibit yang cinta akan kebudayaan Aceh.

Kharis, salah seorang anggota Putroe Phang mengaku bangga dan senang bisa bergabung bersama UKM ini. Ia sudah menjadi anggota selama dua tahun.

“Disini dipenuhi anak muda yang energik dan penuh semangat, berkeinginan untuk belajar seni secara`serius dan kuat. Kekompakan antar anggota seperti layakanya sebuah keluarga, sama-sama senang dan sama-sama susah,”ujar mahasiswa FKIP Kesenian ini.

Kekompakan dan sikap kekeluargaan di UKM Putroe Phang memang menjadi perhatian serius. Karena, kekompakan yang menyatu antar seluruh anggota menjadi kunci eksisnya Putroe Phang.
UKM Putroe Phang patut berbangga, selama 15 tahun perjalanannya, berbagai prestasi telah diraih, baik untuk tingkat lokal maupun tingkat nasional, kesemua itu demi mengangkat nama Unsyiah dan Aceh. (Lihat Tabel).

Ketua Umum generasi ke-15 Putroe Phang, Lasman Fakhrurrazi, mengatakan bahwa, setelah 15 tahun berdirinya UKM ini, masih banyak kendala dan permasalahan yang dihadapi, seperti minimnya dana operasional, fasilitas yang minim hingga tempat tempat latihan yang kurang memadai. “Padahal Putroe Phang telah berdiri 15 tahun di Unsyiah, tapi tempat latihan hingga kini belum jelas dan tidak memadai,” ungkapnya.
Selain itu, Fakhrurazi juga menolak tudingan jika Putroe Phang memiliki ruangan yang luas dan besar. Pendapat itu sangatlah tidak logis menurutnya, karena ruangan itu digunakan bukan hanya untuk kantor saja, melainkan juga untuk latihan tari, musik tradisional dan juga band.

UKM Putroe Phang merupakan suatu wadah bagi mahasiswa Unsyiah untuk mengembangkan dan menggali potensi diri dalam aktivitas berkesenian, serta turut berperan aktif dan berpartisipasi membantu pemerintah dalam pelestarian kebudayaan dan mengangkat nama Unsyiah dimata Universitas lain. “Namun mengapa dana operasional untuk UKM ini dipersulit oleh pihak birokrasi? Saat ini dana yang diberikan hanya sebesar Rp 2.000.000 rupiah. Tentu masih terbilang kurang,” tambah sang ketua.

Untuk tari misalnya, sebut Fakhrurrazi, pihaknya membutuhkan seorang pelatih yang harus dibayar (minimal Rp 8.000.000). Meminta bantuan kepada para senior sudah tidak mungkin karena sebagian besar dari mereka memiliki kesibukan sendiri dan tidak lagi berada di Banda Aceh. Belum lagi jika hendak pementasan atau tampil dalam suatu acara, semuanya membutuhkan dana.

Kondisi ini tentu sangatlah disayangkan. Akankah Visi dari UKM S-PP untuk menampung minat dan bakat di bidang seni sebagai ajang kreativitas dan menjaga kelestarian kebudayaan Aceh dapat terus eksis.
Misi dari UKM S-PP unsyia yaitu mengadakan pelatihan, pengembangan dan penelitian seni, serta pendampingan pada generasi muda sehingga tercipta bibit-bibit yang cinta akan kebudayaan Aceh.

DETaK | Maulida Sari

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