Happy new year guys!! I hope you really enjoy this first week of 2019. For me, I really enjoy this week very much, and it is because several days ago, I went to Bandung with my family since I’ve been wanting to go there for a long time.
When I went there, I visited a lot of cool places and I will write a notes about it in several posts in this blog. For this first post, I will start the notes with 2 of my favorites destinations when I was in Bandung. Those two places are Selasar Sunaryo and NuArt Sculpture Park.
Apparently, the owner of these places are two famous artists in Indonesia. Nyoman Nuarta, that owns NuArt Sculpture Park and Sunaryo Soetono that owns Selasar Sunaryo. So now without any further a do, I will just tell the story when I was there and compare both of this art gallery so you know which one you will prefer to visit when you’re in Bandung.
-Selasar Sunaryo
Before I visited Selasar Sunaryo, I actually already knew that there’s no exhibition as the website says and there was also an on going renovation over there. But I was still very excited because I heard that the environment of the place is calming so I wanted to know how it feels like.
When I first walk into the area of this art gallery, I was really mindblowned by the entrance of the building. It’s made of bamboo that were arranged in certain ways that people would never thought about before. And below this paragraph I already insert some pictures of it so you can understand what am I talking about.
Although the artworks that I saw were very limited due to the renovation, I’m not dissapointed at all because in my opinion, the Selasar Sunaryo itself is one of Sunaryo’s biggest art project. Because if you go there, you’ll notice that all parts of the building, trees, and other plants were placed beautifully and I can see that he really put a lot of effort in just arranging this art gallery.
From that arrangement, I see that the building and some of his artworks really shows the beauty of simplicity. There’s nothing too much that’s happening in Sunaryo’s works of art, but that’ what makes his artwork special and different from other artists.
For you that likes coffee, in Selasar Sunaryo they provide a cafe called Kopi Selasar. In this cafe, it’s not only drinks that they sell but also many kind of foods.
While if you’re the type of person that likes shopping or you need to buy some souvenirs for your family and friend, they also provide a souvenir store called Cinderamata Selasar. They sell many kind of items, from outfit (t-shirts, hat), notebooks, magnet, bags, watches, books, and etc.
So in conclusion, although I never went to any art gallery before, Selasar Sunaryo must be one of the destination that everyone should visit when they’re in Bandung. Because it’s definitely a perfect place to enjoy art and the environment itself.
-NuArt Sculpture Park
I went to this second art gallery on my last day in Bandung. Different from Selasar Sunaryo which contains various types of artworks, in NuArt Sculpture Park, the gallery contains many statues by Nyoman Nuarta.
If you haven’t know, Nyoman Nuarta is the artist that made the famous ‘Garuda Wisnu Kencana’ statue in Bali, ‘Jalesveva Jayamahe’ monument in Surabaya, and many other famous statues in Indonesia.
Unlike Sunaryo’s artwork that’s more minimalistic, in my opinion Nyoman Nuarta’s artwork are more complex. He uses many texture and shapes in his artworks, and it’s also shows in the building of his art gallery that looks more complicated than Selasar Sunaryo.
The other main charactheristic of his artwork that I can see is that Nyoman Nuarta always use expressionism style in his statues. From my research, expressionism style is a style which indirectly shows some kind of moods, ideas, or things that we can’t see like wind in the form of artwork or poems.
For me, because he use expressionism style in his statues, it’s always fun to guess what kind of mood that he’s trying to tell people. And maybe it would also be a fun thing to do if you will go to NuArt Sculpture Park as well.
After I visit both of this art gallery, I think I like Selasar Sunaryo more than NuArt Sculpture Park. It’s not because NuArt Sculpture Park is not good enough, but it’s because I really like how minimalistic Sunaryo’s artwork is and how the art gallery offers a sense of peace and calmness when we’re inside it.
Lastly, these two art galleries might have a different vibe, but it also taught me one thing, and it’s about self-authority and the importance of expressing our ideas with our own style. From these two art galleries, I know that as long as you express your idea in your own way, people will always genuinely appreciate it. Maybe it will takes so much time and patience to find your own style. But once you finally find it, people will see it as an interesting thing and they will appreciate that. So after realizing this, I really want to focus to find my own style in expressing myself. Whether it is in my daily life or music, and I hope you guys can do it too.
Ayunda Damai 