TEMPO.CO, Yogyakarta-Ahead of Art Jog 2016 closing, a number of artists have raised some funds to return Freeport sponsorship money. For some, Freeport is deemed as an exploitative company that damages the environment and violates human rights.
Within only a week, the funds raised from artists had reached Rp16,350,000. Those who were involved in the fundraising campaign among others are Agung Kurniawan, Lashita, Situmorang, Titarubi, Yustina Neni and Uji Handoko.
They dubbed the campaign as People’s Solidarity for Art Jog 2016. One of the initiators of the campaign, Agung Kurniawan, said that the Solidarity for Art Jog 2016 was an effort to support Art Jog by raising funds from the public to either cover for or return the sponsorship money of the mining company.
In addition, the campaign was a way of the public of both artists and non-artists to voluntarily contribute to the settlement of the problems faced by Art Jog organizer.
According to Agung, the funds being raised was not enough to return the whole sponsorship money. Art Jog organizer had already spent Freeport’s sponsorship money of Rp100 million.
The fundraising was initiated by artists themselves, Agung said. They considered that Art Jog was run by the people with minimal help from the government. Financial trouble and the threat of bankruptcy had forced the organizing to partner with Freeport. The partnership was not worth it since the amount of the sponsorship money was relatively small, according to Agung.
The situation has arisen due to neglect of art infrastructure and suprastructure, according to Agung. The Art Jog organizer had been left to work by themselves in the event. To make it worse, some community members had been calling for boycott without understanding the issue, Agung said.
Art Jog needed tangible support, he said. He hoped that current situation was a lesson learned for the organizer and community members who were against Art Jog. “We hope the state and the public are there to hold better and more dignified cultural events,” Agung said.
Earlier, the controversy surrounding Art Jog’s partnership with Freeport had arisen following the protest from community members. An artist of street art community, Andrew Lumban Gaol, had condemned it. The Institution of Indonesian Muslim Artist and Cultural Observer (Lesbumi) of Nahdlatul Ulama, Front of Nahdliyin for the Sovereignty of Natural Resources (FNKSDA) and Peaceful Yogyakarta Solidarity Forum had also expressed their criticism. Moreover, a number of people, some were Papuans, had staged a demonstration calling for boycott against Art Jog.
Art Jog 2016 will end with an event dubbed as the ‘closing party’ on Monday night, June 27, 2016 in JNM. The event will be closed with performances from Dubyouth and Libertaria. “The event will end at 10:30 p.m. or longer,” said the spokesman of ArtJog 2016.
SHINTA MAHARANI
