Abstract
Murals recently gained popularity in Indonesia due to the case of mural bombardment in several regions in 2021 related to the effect of the covid-19 outbreak. There were a lot of murals and graffiti that criticized the President and the government in Jakarta and Surabaya. However, murals in Solo, especially on Gatot Subroto (Gatsu) street, tend to illustrate the picture of happiness rather than critics to others. Hence, people believe these murals have an impact on tourism in Solo. This case makes murals suddenly become popular, and as a consequence, people are curious about the function of the murals. This research focuses on the meaning of murals in Solo, which is different from other cities in Indonesia by using a qualitative methodology. For collecting the data, we conducted interviews, observation, documentation, and literature. Then, for data analysis, we used the Iconography-Iconology method from Erwin Panofsky which is divided into three steps such as pre-iconography, iconography analysis, and iconology interpretation. This research provides three meanings of Gatsu’s murals that consist of the styles, theme, and intrinsic meaning: (1) the actual meaning is that Gatsu’s murals use the eclectic style; (2) the conceptual meaning is a peaceful and positive theme which is caused by the reason that Gatsu used to be the center of the artwork; (3) the intrinsic meaning is to reborn creativity which tends to reactivate the creative mood in the city. In addition, it is an endeavor to resolve the dispute in Solo, particularly at Gatsu street, which has been traumatized by several conflicts (the G30SPKI incident, the central java riot, the revolution, and the national awakening party) that happened in the past.
PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
This paper examines the meaning of murals in Gatot Subroto (Gatsu) street in Surakarta, Indonesia. This research explains the factual, conceptual, and intrinsic meaning of the murals in Gatsu by using the iconography-iconology methodology. This research help people understand the function of murals in Solo. Indeed, the visual can be interpreted and expanded by using the historical background. Therefore, people will understand the reason behind the artwork. This research tells that murals actually have the crucial function of making people conscious of their surroundings, and simultaneously can improve people’s critical thinking. The unique murals provide questions to people; therefore, they will use their brains to catch the meaning of the murals. In fact, murals in Solo are not only to beautify the city for tourism purposes but also to bring back the glory of Gatsu Street in the past and to tell people about the history behind it.
1. Introduction
Indonesia has several renowned murals that could be found in big cities like Yogyakarta and Jakarta. However, Solo one of the cultured cities in Indonesia just begun to expand murals in several locations. Although they are not as popular as those in the two cities, murals in Gatot Subroto (Gatsu) street, Solo, begin to draw people’s attention and are considered to significantly affect the city’s tourism and community’s social condition. Different from other murals in other cities, murals in Solo are relatively more peaceful than others that have more universal meaning and purpose, in order to attract the tourist. Some people presumably believe that is a connection between Solo and the government since the president of Indonesia is originally from Solo city. Therefore, people think that’s why there is no critical mural in Solo city. In fact, recently in 2021, there is action by the Indonesian National Police (Polri) to remove the critical murals. As consequence, it has drawn public reactions and considered the government to be anti-criticism (Roniansyah et al., Citation2022). However, there are also some pamphlets or vandals in the Solo that contribute to the bombardment of the critical aspiration on the street that went viral in 2021.
This research actually focuses on the mural in Gatot Subroto street, in order to find the actual, conceptual, and intrinsic meaning of the murals in Gatsu. These murals constitute a street art project led by Prof. Sardono that finished in 2017 on Solo’s main street (Gatsu) namely “Solo is Solo”. Since then, Gatsu has emerged as one of the new tourism objects in Solo. Surakarta does not have many tourist objects. Instead, Surakarta is popular with its remnants of ancient Javanese culture. A plethora of potential natural and cultural resources, both tangible and intangible, exist in Surakarta as a city with a royal heritage, Mataram (Saeroji, A., & Wijaya, D. A., Citation2017). Therefore, the mural project becomes an alternative solution to enhance the tourist destination there.
Viewing massive social and mass media exposure on this project, the “Solo is Solo” mural project could be considered a success. It is proved by the article in the Solopos that said mural in the Gatsu corridor gained people’s attention to be the perfect place to have an instagramable photo (Fikri, Citation2017). Indeed, the Gatsu corridor became the street gallery from that time until now. In addition, one research tells that murals in Solo as an oasis of social criticism, the guardian of culture and symbols of public heroes among the branded spaces. The murals show the manners and customs, etiquette, and traditional narratives and wisdom (Murtono & Wijaya, Citation2021).
However, there are also some people who think that this mural’s project is inappropriate due to the new image of Solo as a metropolitan city. It is because Solo has been famous as a cultural city rather than an urban city; So it will tend to change the city’s image. People argued that mural should be a way for the community to be heard by the government and others. Because mural represented the voice of the people, it seemed that mural as their attempt to be heard. Moreover, Surakarta is unique; it has different laws and customs than other cities (Alimin et al., Citation2021).
Based on the description above, we were interested in studying murals in Gatsu street, Solo. We analyzed the meaning of the murals in Gatsu, Solo, with three steps such as pre-iconography, iconography analysis, and iconology interpretation, in order to find the actual, conceptual, and intrinsic meaning.
2. Method
The present study applied the descriptive analytical-qualitative method. For collective data, we obtained through interviews, observation, documentation, and literature. Then we use the iconography-iconology methodology for data analysis by Erwin Panofsky as art historian from the first half of the twentieth century. The terms “iconography” and “iconology,” which are frequently used in conjunction in encyclopedias and dictionaries of art, both relate to the descriptive and classificatory study of images in an effort to comprehend the meaning, either explicit or implicit, of the subject matter being portrayed (Corrigan, Citation2012).
There are three steps in an analysis by Erwin Panofsky: the first one is Pre-Iconography Descriptive, using the history of style to analyze the actual meaning by physical appearance; The second, Iconography Analysis using the history of theme to identify the conceptual meaning of the object. The third is Iconology Interpretation using contextual such as the history of the city or culture to reveal the intrinsic meaning of the object (Nasri, Citation2014). In the end, there is confirmation data to prove the analysis by using the example of the artwork in the same period to know the “zeitgeist” (spirit of the age; Panofsky, Citation1939).
The observation was done by writing down the conditions found in the field. We collected the documentation of Murals along the way of Gatsu street. We have interviewed Prof. Sardono W Kusumo as the project’s initiator, F.X. Rudy as the former mayor in Solo who initiate the project, Irul Hidayat as the chief of the mural procurement, Sony as the field coordinator, some muralists, the shop owners, and city’s observers who disagree with the Mural in Gatsu. A literature review was conducted by examining books in some libraries and online articles related to the mural.
For the data analysis, we used the Iconography-Iconology methodology with three pre-requisite steps. In the first step, we describe the mural’s physical appearance by identifying its aesthetic element using the history of the style. Second, we analyzed the mural by conceptual meaning from the mural’s story using the history of the mural’s theme. Third, we reveal the intrinsic meaning of the history of Solo’s city and culture to know why this project happened. Then we confirm it with other artwork from the same era in the other place.
3. Result and discussion
3.1. Pra-iconography description
In this step, we attempted to link the physical appearance of the visual of the mural and its underlying story to reveal the mural’s style. There were approximately 44 murals in Gatsu in the project’s first year; additions and replacements were made in the following years from 2017 to 2020. There are divided into six categories in Table , namely: (1) Shop branding; (2) Recent news; (3) Specific meanings/ messages; (4) Solo Culture; (5) Renowned figure; and (6) Aesthetic Mural (Bedjo et al., Citation2020).
Figure 1. Mural at Gatot Subroto Street: (a) behind timepiece machine, (b) Susi Pudji Astuti, (c) Make Love Not War, (d) Witing Mulya Jalarang Wani Rekasa, (e) Spirit Sumpah Pemuda (f) Having Fun.
Table 1. Categories of murals in solo is solo project at gatsu street
Table 2. Pra-iconography description
We divided Gatsu’s Mural into six categories by identifying its Physical appearance figure. First, Shop Branding showed the figure of what they sell through the mural. Second, Recent News showed the popular figure at the recent time. Third, specific message, to tell the specific story to give a piece of advice to society. Fourth, Solo Culture, to share the characteristic of Solo culture. Fifth, Renowned figure, to remember and appreciate famous figures. Six, city aesthetic, to beautify the wall, to be the photo background.
Furthermore, . displays the aesthetic analysis of the “Solo is Solo” Mural using Panofsky’s theory of pre-iconography description. We only selected one mural for each category to describe the pra-iconography identification.
Murals follow the styles that have developed in painting. Suppose we look at the style based on the history of the art style. Identifying six category murals in Gatsu street use decorative, pop art, realistic, and graffiti.
Some of them use realistic style: We can see at the murals figure such as Susi Pudji Astuti mural and Peter Heilen mural, the detail of the paintings resembles the actual figure one. Realistic come to the accurate and objective description of the ordinary and observable World (Stokstad, Citation2002). The accurate and realistic portrayal of situations and objects in visual space is what defines visual reality. Visual realism is characterized by the accurate and detailed representation of the scenes and objects in visual space (Takahata et al., Citation2014).
They also have the decorative style as we found on the Peter Helen mural and aesthetic mural. It is a decorative style that recalls the rococo style and was popular in the eighteenth century. The royal factories were already well-known, inspired by Chinese themes in crafts such as tapestries, porcelain, and silverware, which became colorful fantasy creations (Stokstad, Citation2002).
There are also some graffiti in Gatsu. Graffiti is considered to be an affront to the aesthetics of the urban environment. Graffiti associated with tagging is considered unsightly and unclean. Graffiti is one of Mural Gatsu’s signature techniques, which may be found on murals with unique significance and aesthetic value. Graffiti gave working-class subcultures a way to express themselves that the hegemonic parent culture did not allow (Andron, Citation2018).
Another mural style in Gatsu is Pop Art-inspired, such as an artistic and well-known mural. Pop Art was prominent during the same period as the artwork. It can be seen that the line, color, and technique used to draw the mural are all characteristics of the mural. The term of Pop stands for a popular word. Pop art characters pick the World as a source of imagination (imaginary products) and have a relatively significant figure size. They also have a mechanical repetition: to demonstrate the facts of visual representation. Anonymity: the act of drawing letters and deciding to paint billboards and the addition of a commercial product as part of the advertisement becomes art. Meaningless, artificial, or anti-art is the theme (Feldman, Citation1967). Pop Art is an art movement whose presence is heavily influenced by popular culture phenomena that occur in society. Pop Art views popular culture that is used for commercial gain as a raw material that can be used as a source of inspiration for artistic creations. Despite having a lengthy history in the world of art, it appears that the Pop Art movement continues to be an intriguing source of inspiration for individuals who are creative, including Indonesian artists (Wardana & Hari, Citation2006).
Pop art-style paintings are also referred to as combination paintings, the basic idea being a collage along with three-dimensional objects—an eagle made like life and a pillow hanging—coupled with painted fields, splashes of paint, and a stick nailed to wooden frame support. The theme is meaningless, contrived, or anti-art. However, it can be translated as a work about the mixture of pleasure and disgust with the visual environment, especially as it is manifested in various billboards, wrappings, labels, and trademarks—in the printed form of popular culture. Formal language and technique are not pure. It is only a thematic art (Feldman, Citation1967).
Furthermore, the Renowned Mural, which uses National Hero as Mural’s figure, is close to WPAP style with a bit of difference. WPAP or Wedha’s Pop Art Portrait is one of the favorite art styles which appears in Indonesia. The character of this style is the rearrangement of face portrait with geometric shape and mix of color. The face dimension is not changed, so the face still looks the same as the real one. This technic was founded by Wedha Abdul Rasyid, an Indonesian artist, in 1990 (An1magine, Citation2020). Mural in renowned mural uses more organic lines or shapes that are somewhat geometric. Nevertheless, it uses a mixed color that looks like WPAP styles.
We can say that the Mural in Gatsu carries a postmodernist vibe. Although there is no universal agreement on what the term postmodern means, it involves the rejection of the mainstream concept and recognition of artistic pluralism, and the acceptance of various artistic intentions and styles. Many critics insist that pluralism applies to modernism and has been a characteristic of art since the post-impressionist era. Others argue that the art world’s attitude toward pluralism has changed: where critics and artists once searched for a historically inevitable mainstream during pluralistic variety, many people now accept pluralism for what it probably always was a manifestation of our culturally heterogeneous age. Postmodernism encompasses the entire postmodern cultural spectrum, from the high and low, avant-garde and mainstream, well-known and obscure, in a variety of genres, from fiction, poetry, and theatre to architecture and the visual arts. It began in the 1960s and died out in the first ten years of the new millennium (McHale, Citation2015). There are two trends in postmodern art: The loss of boundaries between art and everyday life, and the loss of boundaries between high and low art. Many alternative media have sprung up including happening art, installation art, and video art (Arief Prihantoro, Citation2016).
It is not easy to analyze every style of the mural with a specific characteristic. However, we can say that the mural adopted the contemporary or eclectic style, a combination of several styles. Based on the identification of the mural’s style, there are many styles combined in the figure of the mural. It can be concluded that the Gatsu mural adopted the eclectic style, or we say now, as a contemporary style because they tend to be an experiment. It means mixing with many styles so that we cannot identify into a specific style, but they combine many styles like realist, decorative, graffiti, and pop art.
The combination of different styles can be said as the eclectic style, which is familiar with architecture and construction rather than painting. However, the concept was used in other art like painting too. It has started to be adopted in many constructions and was one of the marks of the period, inserted in a search for urban and social remodeling and modernization. Eclecticism emerged after the modern era as critical as modern architecture (Alimin, Citation2017). Then, the eclectic style has become a trend in contemporary interior design. This style has been achieved through a fusion or assimilation of styles. Those cross-fusion has become a character of the contemporary interior which aesthetic defines pluralism as a result of modern critics (Widyaevan & Rahardjo, Citation2019). So the term eclectic was established from architecture history then this term is also used for other artwork such as painting. This term is used to say that some artwork uses different styles and combines them with many other styles. Eclectic and contemporary painting.
Contemporary style is another name for eclecticism in art. Many modern artists reject the traditional notion of a piece of art as a moveable object in favor of creating installations that are permanently or temporarily attached to a physical location, often for the duration of an exhibition. Light, sound, video, and computer technology are used in contemporary installation art to experiment with new shapes, materials, and mediums. (Stokstad, Citation2002). Contemporary artists often deliberately challenge viewers employing a wide range of means that include different variants of ambiguity. They portrait on how inconsistencies relating to a painting’s content (presence of semantic violations) and title (its semantic incoherence with what is depicted in the painting) influence aesthetic judgment, namely the liking and understanding of contemporary artworks (Szubielska et al., Citation2021). In short, contemporary style has no specific characteristic, instead they can be very different each other, as long as they can provide reasons for the artwork by combining many stuff.
Contemporary art is also known for the use of different materials and techniques in conservation building. The contemporary use of portable and laboratory-based experimental techniques was essential to obtain information about the artworks’ surface and stratigraphic distribution of different materials. (Ciccola et al., Citation2020). Mural in Gatsu also used different materials and techniques; as mentioned in the mural article, one of the Gatsu murals resembles Graphic art techniques. Sigit said that Mural in Solo has a unique style like The traced effect (cukilan) resembles a form of graphic artwork. (Citation2021).
The Mural at Gatsu street tends to be experimental so that it combines different styles to establish the identity and character of the mural. We can conclude that the style of Gastu’s Mural is contemporary art that is close to the eclectic style.
3.2. Iconographic analysis
In this step, we attempted to link the physical appearance of the visual of the mural and its underlying story to reveal the mural’s theme. Gartus said the context can have an important influence on aesthetic appreciation. However, some effects depend also on the style of the artworks and the individual art interests of the viewers (Gartus et al., Citation2015). As we see in step one, there are several categories of murals in Solo, which can be described as the Mural theme.
The first murals categorized as shop branding were characterized by displays of products sold in the store, serving as a promotion, and did not emphasize the meaning or messages. The first mural is “the time machine,” used by the inventor of the clock in the World with a traditional Javanese costume with a decorative clock background behind it.
Second, murals with specific messages were characterized by a unique depiction of an object, surrealistic nature, and application of personification, analogy, or symbols. These murals aim to remind the community about specific issues. The image presented in these murals also tended to have no relation to the product sold by the store where the mural was made. Instead, it brings the issue of solidarity rather than disunity with the title “make love not war” it means the mural wants to say prioritize loving each other over fighting.
Third, Murals with renowned figures are aimed only to appreciate the figures, not to deliver messages. The mural with the title “Spirit Sumpah Pemuda” showed the national hero to commemorate the historical day “Sumpah Pemuda” (youth oath) day. Moreover, some renowned figures, such as Frida Kahlo and Raden Saleh, were presented wearing Solo traditional clothes, which shows local values. These murals aim to tell the public that the figures are important in Indonesia’s and also the World’s history. They serve as a means of education for the public so that they know these figures better.
Fourth, Murals categorized as “news murals” appointed based on presents popular issues. One of the phenomenal news murals was the image of Joko Widodo, a former Solo mayor who serves as Indonesian president. Another phenomenal work was the image of Minister Susi Puji Astuti with her jargon “tenggelamkan” (sink it!). Before this mural, there was a mural depicting President Joko Widodo and his political Rival, Mr. Prabowo, who hugged an Indonesian athlete. News mural usually presents hot issues; the muralists use such phenomenal moments as their icons in their murals. The figures were usually depicted as a superhero such as Susi Puji Astuti, a Wonder woman, and Minister Nadiem Makarim, a Spiderman. This mural closely links to the political message since the character was the person who contributed to the government. This mural often provides support to important figures in government (Alimin et al. n.d.) . It tends to influence the people in Solo indirectly about politics. Murals are, in short, not merely inanimate objects in space but a dynamic element in the political process (Rolston, Citation2003). Nevertheless, in this mural, we find the murals have a message to tell about politics positively.
Fifth, The majority of murals found in the Solo is Solo project is categorized as city aesthetics. These murals do not have specific meanings or messages since they aim to beautify the city face, particularly in Gatsu street (Muralists Solo is Solo, Citation2020). For example, a mural with the title “having fun” is usually used by people as a background photo of their selfies. These murals focus on eye-catching and are worth posting on Instagram, depending on the artist’s willingness. Some muralists do riot create their works depending on what they will get from them, but for their satisfaction (Nugroho, Citation2006).
The last category was Solo culture. Visitors begin to like this mural category since it represents Solo or Javanese identity. Using this mural as a background of their photograph proved that they had visited Solo. The ideas used in this mural category include older people such as saleswomen riding bicycles and pedicab drivers with their uniquely decorated pedicabs and Javanese languages. The murals tend to trigger audience feeling, and give emphatic and also relate with the sentence because murals will work not simply at the intellectual level but will also stir emotions, whether positive or negative, from members of the social movement and from the broader society outside that movement (Rolston & Berastegi, Citation2016).
Overall, Based on the analysis above, the character and the story of the Gatsu’s Mural contain the positive aspect only. The similarity of all the murals in Gatsu is that they present positive elements and do not contain criticism or satire. As a visual expression, these murals gave a peaceful impression to the visitors.
Therefore, what is the meaning of the theme that showed in this Gatsu’s Mural? We will find the meaning based on the historical data of the world theme from time to time. The themes presented in Gatsu’s Mural are positive. However, there are many variations of murals in the World, such as religious murals during the Renaissance with fresco techniques, political murals by Diego Rivera in Mexico, ideological propaganda, cultural resistance, and the current theme such as commercials and tourism.
The mural has a developmental history that is related to the history of painting. The mural is derived from Latin. Namely, murus then became a muralist, which means wall (Pandawangi, et al. Citation2021), which has the meaning “contained on the wall.”
The “mural” term in art as a painting on a wall began in the early 20th century in Spain. Dr. Atl (Gerardo Murillo Cornado), a Mexican painter, made a manifest in the form of a movement to develop public art in his country. He named it Pintura mural (Pintura: picture, painting. Mural: wall). This manifest gave birth to the Mexican Mural Movement in 1922 (Widjaja, Citation2021). The common technic for a mural is the Fresco technique, marouflage: painted on canvas and taped to the wall’s surface, acrylic paint, spray paint (Gartus et al., Citation2015).
However, wall painting had already been used in the Renaissance era that popular with fresco technic. The fresco of Sancta Sanctorum marked what might be called a test period in the Baconian reform. For decorating ceiling vaulting, pictures to conceived were the Biblical scenes in the window area. It had to be made with two different readings in mind, the natural (horizontal narrative) and the artificial (vertical, to follow the wall). The latter was of greater importance; as the next bay in the nave shows, the aim was to lead the beholder onward to deeper levels of meaning. The picture establishes sources in Early Christian art, drawing upon the famous cycle of frescos in San Paolo Fuori le mura in Rome. Rolf Toman, 2007: Tandem Verlag GmbH. The Art of the Italian Renaissance Architecture Sculpture Painting Drawing (Stokstad, Citation2002).
Furthermore, Historically, the mural in this public space was first proposed by Diego Rivera. He believed that art should play a role in empowering working people to understand their history. He did not want his art to be isolated in museums and galleries, but he wanted his art to be accessible to people, so it had to be scattered across the walls of buildings for the public. Therefore, he traveled to Italy to study early Renaissance Fresco paintings. He formulated his public painting style that would speak directly to the working class and indigenous Mexicans. He created a style of painting called Mexicanidad, a school of painting that explores Mexican culture (Hernandez, n.d; Citation2021).
Mexico, which had just finished its war and started a new life, was looking for a new artistic appearance to create a more humanist country. Vasconcelos, an Education Minister in Mexico, invited Rivera to look at archaeological sites to become familiar with the country’s artistic heritage. In January 1922, he created a mural titled “creation” at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. Since then, murals have been scattered in Mexico (Citation2021).
Diego Rivera was a pioneer of mural art that later recognized and became the world standard in artistic quality and message delivery. At first, he wanted to make a typical Mexican art, but his empathy for communism made his murals laden with images of small people, farmers, and workers.
Mural initially formed in Mexico as the characteristic of new art as Public art. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 overthrew the thirty-five-year-long dictatorship of General Porfirio Diaz and was followed by ten years of political instability. In 1912 the reformist president Alvaro Obregon came to power and restored political order. Obregon’s government commissioned artists to decorate public buildings with murals celebrating the Mexican people’s history, life, and work (Stokstad, Citation2002).
Prominent in the new Mexican mural movement was Diego Rivera (1886–1957). He lived in Paris in 1911–1919 and befriended Picasso, and worked in as Synthetic Cubist Style. In 1919 he meet David Alfaro Siqueiros. They began to discuss Mexico’s need for national and revolutionary art. 1920–21 he traveled to Italy to study its great Renaissance Frescoes, then began a series of monumental murals for a Mexican government building, inspired by both Italian Renaissance and Pre-Columbian art of Mexico. Then, In 1930–1934 he worked in The US, painting murals in San Francisco, Detroit, and New York. 1932 the Rockefeller family commissioned him to paint for the Lobby of the RCA building. Because he included Lenin in the painting, Rockefeller canceled the commission and destroyed the mural. In response to what he called an “act of cultural vandalism,” Rivera re-created the mural in the Palacio de Bellas in Mexico city, under the new title Man, controller of the universe (Stokstad, Citation2002).
So mural as a public art form in Mexico and famous trend by Diego Rivera to share his thoughts with people, to make them understand and be aware of the condition of the World. Then mural spread to a different country to communicate with the public and a ruler. The Mural of Rivera is a combination of realist and imagination with a strong idea like a caricature, which has a critical statement through the picture. Also, Rivera was influenced by cubist by Picasso, and then it also showed up through his mural.
Beginning in the 1970s, another very different sort of public art in the United States took the opposite approach, concentrating on such differences to acknowledge the multiculturalism of American society. Leaders in creating this type of public art were several Chicano artists in Los Angeles and other California cities. In the 1970s, they began to paint public murals, reviving a tradition started by Diego Rivera and other Mexican artists following the Mexican Revolution. His painting is about the history of California, with an emphasis on the role of racial minorities. The twentieth-century scenes include the deportation of Mexican-American citizens during the Great Depression, the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, and residents’futile protests over the division of a Chicano neighborhood by a new freeway. The mural concludes with more positive images of the opportunities gained by minorities in the 1950s and 1960s. Typical of Baca’s public work, The Great Walls of Los Angeles was a group effort involving arts professionals and some 215 young people who painted the Mural under Baca’s direction (Stokstad, Citation2002).
David Hammons, an outspoken critic of the gallery system, insists that art today is “like Novocaine. It used to wake you up, but now it puts you to sleep.” Only street art, uncontaminated by commerce, he maintains, can still serve the old function. In their drive to bring about positive social change, some artists have created public works to provoke discussion and tangible improvement. A notable example is the Revival Fields of the Chinese American artist Mel Chin, which are designed to restore the ecological health of contaminated land through “hyperaccumulating” plants that absorb heavy metals from the soil. Chin created his first revival field near St. Paul, Minnesota, in the dangerously contaminated Pig’s Eye Landfill. Chin gave the work the cosmological form of a circle in a square (representing heaven and earth in Chinese iconography), divided into quarters by intersecting walkways. Rather than making a metaphorical work to express a problem, said cHin, a work can tackle a problem head-on. As an art form, it extends the notion of art beyond a familiar object-commodity status into the realm of process and public service (Stokstad, Citation2002).
Then, mural is also famous for showing the war or effect after the war in the city. Its purpose tends to collect the memory through the mural, so many people can see it because it was published in public space. At first glance, art and war make an unlikely pair: the former creates while the latter destroys. Nevertheless, their encounter has nourished the history of painting. In the works of Spanish artists from Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) to Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), or among German painters such as Otto Dix (1891–1969) and George Grosz (1893–1959), war stands out as one of the main themes of modern and contemporary art (Slitine, Citation2018).
Throughout history and across cultures, works of art have been placed in public spaces to address a broad audience. Prior to the modernist period, works of public art often served to honor a hero, commemorate an important event, or celebrate widely shared social or religious values and were usually readily understandable to the public. Modernist artists continued to make public art but typically worked in abstract styles that were difficult for untrained viewers to comprehend. In many cases, controversies ensued, pitting the conservative taste of the general public against the more adventuresome aesthetics of modernist artists and their supporters. (Stokstad, Citation2002).
Then, there is also modern graffiti that originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some of the controversies about street art and graffiti art are apparent in the work of the British artist Banksy. He is known best for his critical artworks that often combine street art and architectural features. Half of the graffiti artworks were stencils or poster art (i.e., street art), while the rest consisted of more classical sprayed graffiti. Context is a potent mediator of aesthetic appreciation for modern art and graffiti art (Gartus et al., Citation2015).
After some time, the mural becomes part of the commercial project in the late 20th-century era. It is famous as an effort to improve the city. Many of them are now standard features of urban commercial complexes. The center amenities include a pedestrian mall, an open skating rink, roof gardens, underground walkways, garages, shops, theaters, and restaurants. Adorning the buildings are sculpture, mosaics, murals, metalwork, and enamels commissioned from some of the era’s best-known artists and artisans. Many of these artworks address the theme of “New Frontiers and the March of Civilization,” devised to express this essentially commercial project (Stokstad, Citation2002:1117).
In a context of increased urban competition, cities worldwide use art and culture as tools to improve their image and make urban spaces attractive. By contributing to the pacification or securitization of public spaces, art could encourage some behaviors or, on the contrary, discourage others. Any visit to the center of a global city today gives an impression of déjà vu. Water features, light designs, open-air events, street art paintings, etc., are standard components of any city which claims a global status. Usually conceived as distinctive elements in a context characterized by urban competition, these elements appear to contribute to a certain homogenization of the 21st-century urban experience (Guinard & Margier, Citation2018).
In this context, art—especially installed in public spaces—has gained a more significant role in urban marketing since it appears as an additional tool to transform a city’s image and identity. In a context characterized by a crisis of the modern city, a decline of the industrial sector, and an increase of the recreational activities, culture in general and art, in particular, have been seen as tools to re-enchant the urban imaginary and to develop an alternative economy. New functions were slowly attributed to art, be it by public or private stakeholders, that was aesthetic, but also economic, social, and—even if more implicitly—political (Guinard & Margier, Citation2018).
Based on the history above, even though the mural had already started in the Renaissance as decorative, lately we found that murals begin as critical communication to the rulers and express the muralist’s thoughts. Then develop as Memoriam of the critical event such as to Memoriam war or an accident. However, recently mural tends to use as a way to improve the city economically and commercially. None other than to improve the tourism sector.
If we look based on the theme in the Gatsu mural, neither contains the critical nor Memoriam. Instead, the Mural in Gatsu only contains a positive story and peaceful picture with many colors. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Gatsu mural only to improves the city to look more beautiful. As we know, Solo city actually does not have many tourist destinations, so it needs to emerge as a new place as new destination for branding the city.
Since murals nowadays tend to improve city life, Mural in Solo includes this category as a contemporary mural theme to beautify the city and open public space. So they use the eclectic style to make the city beautiful, also because it was the first huge mural project, so the artist tends to experiment with this mural. However, why does Solo want to look beautiful? What is the intrinsic meaning of this mural project? We will see the next step in iconology interpretation above.
3.3. Iconology interpretation
In this step, we attempted to interpret the physical appearance, and the conceptual meaning deeper to depict the story behind this project. We try to uncover the intrinsic meaning of the visual of this mural by confirming it with the historical data from the same era. The mural is a unique artwork due to its ability to speak to its audiences and influence its viewers directly. The community mural movement serves as an essential educational by helping to clarify, expand, and strengthen community values (Conrad, Citation1995). The mural serves as a medium of aspirations of the objective community that is free from the intervention of any party. It can influence many people, serve as a learning medium for the community, and be understood quickly.
In two steps before, we can see that the style is eclectic and the theme is to beautify the city, and in this step, we will try to know the most profound meaning of the Mural at Gatsu: what the intrinsic meaning of the Mural in Gatsu street by interviewing several people that contribute to this mural project. Then we will confirm the conclusion that we found with the historical data of the Solo City, especially Gatsu Street. Then we confirmed to other cities that also made murals and the purpose of their mural. However, first, we need to know how the project of the Mural in Gatsu, Solo occurred.
This project emerged when Prof. Sardono met Solo Mayor FX Hadi Rudyatmo. The mayor expressed his concern about the vandalism problems in the city’s main street, Jl. Slamet Riyadi (Rudyatmo, Citation2021). Because there is so much tagging in Solo’s city and many advertisements that are not neatly arranged. Responding to the mayor’s concern, Prof. Sardono got an idea to turn this vandalism into mural projects. In this case, street art emerges as a correction. This mural project serves as a solution for vandalism problems in Solo city. He then invited some youths from universities in Solo (i.e., UNS, UMS, and ISI) to join the project.
When this idea was presented to the mayor in 2017, positive responses and support were given to these muralists. They were asked to collaborate with the city’s tourism department. Through this collaboration, they designed an activity to beautify Solo City and gathered young artists and mural communities to participate in a mural project called “Solo is Solo.” The title “Solo is Solo” is used to accentuate the identity of this city, and to assert that this project is different from that of other cities. This project was executed based on the willingness to free Solo from vandalism and rebrand the city's image (Sony, 2020).
Prof. Sardono also involved an art community known as Komunitas Mewarnai Indonesia Mural Company. This community met Prof. Sardono in 2015. They discussed the idea of “Solo is Solo” by painting on a shop’s roller door and walls, which could be enjoyed when the shop is closed.
The location of the project was selected based on several considerations made by Prof. Sardono. The place should be able to create “an element of surprise” for the Solo citizens. Prof. Sardono called this consideration with the term “Prapatan.” He argued that the essential elements of a city are Prapatan, a Javanese term for road intersections. He argued that an intersection is a place where people gather. However, today, people have lost the function of an intersection. It is now used as a target to advertise products.
Solo City possesses a good design with its large sidewalk surrounded by Tamarind trees in Slamet Riyadi Street. It is supported by Babat (tripe) Solo by Raden Mas Sayid, a painter and a thinker who write about city signs, stating that (1) big clock located in the city center functions to learn about time, (2) public transportation shows the citizen’s mobility; and (3) Prapatan serves as a place where people a long time ago found the direction. Prapatan hosts thousands of events, memories, opportunities, and hopes for many people (Interview with Kusumo, Sardono W: 2020).
Over time, city images become boring, leading to its citizens’ depression. Accordingly, the city becomes a place where people commit harmful activities such as crimes, among others. Grounded on this thought, the “Solo is Solo” mural project is aimed to invite youths to paint murals. Since painters draw public attention to watch and are not limited by time, Prof. Sardono invited youths to discuss and find out other city signs. Based on the discussion, they found another city sign, namely traffic lights. Accordingly, crossroad serves as a strategic location to make murals. People stop for three minutes at the crossroads and view the murals while waiting for the green light. In one hour, there will be hundreds of people will view these works. The dialog presented in the mural is different from that in paintings. It even goes beyond performance art. Thus, by selecting the Gatsu crossroads, they expected to revive the initial function of crossroads (Kusumo, Citation2020).
This project began from a discussion between muralists and the shop owners in Gatsu, which the government (tourism department) facilitated. The discussion was conducted to match the muralists’ and the shop owners’ ideas about the mural. In practice, it was challenging to match the muralists’ and the shop owners’ ideas and educate the shop owners to maintain the mural. It took three months to approach the shop owners. The negotiation processes between muralists and the shop owners could be seen when the muralists presented an idea about Gatot Subroto wearing a Lurik outfit, while the shop owners presented his idea about the watch inventor, Peter Heinlein, wearing a traditional outfit (lurik).
The Mural project was executed in the form of performing art in two days, from 28–29 October 2017 in Gatsu Street; the theme was Reimagine city graffiti, through the collaboration of Surakarta City Government, Wonderful Indonesia, and Mas Don’s art. The mural was done in two weeks. The execution began when the shop was closed, from 9 pm to 5 am. The muralist community performed the execution. Most of them were university and high school students. They took two up to seven days to finish their works. This event also involved local people participating in the events.
There is the main mural in the Gatsu, which has a newsletter theme that follows the famous moments that occur among the community. The murals in this project are renewed annually; the first mural (pre-event) was entitled Homosoloensis and Jokowi Mbecak, made in 2016. The second murals were Sunan Mahardika and Susi Puji Astuti as Wonder Woman in 2017. The third mural was the image of Jokowi and Prabowo hug in 2018. The fourth mural was the image of Minister Nadiem Makarim depicted as Spiderman. This mural was finished in 2020—this project involved around 100 groups of muralists. After that, the Mural in Gatsu attracted people’s attention and made the Solo more popular as one of the beautiful cities, proving that many people want to visit Solo because of the Gatsu murals.
It was the background story of the Mural in Gatsu by the “Solo is Solo” project. It concludes that the purpose is to erase the vandalism and give creative space for the young generation in Solo.
Even though the Gatsu mural accepts good appreciation, some people disagree about this mural. One of the Solo them said that the Mural in Gatsu does not relate to solo history and culture. Instead, the mural must depart on the initiative of the community itself, not from the government or other people who have power. Furthermore, they also said that the mural function must be to express people’s emotions, as communication media, and criticize something. Mr. Titus gave an example by analogy in the toilet. He said that people make the scramble in the toilet to criticize something or just joke. The two reasons that make the toilet clean without scramble or tag edging are that the school is too disciplined or has no urgency problem. So it is the same in the city too. The mural must come from the society itself. They want to make the mural because they want to say something. If people make the mural with the critical word, so let it go. It means that creativity begins (Albertus Rus Putranto Ponco Citation2021). For this case, we need to confirm the character of the Mural in Solo first. What kind of mural had to exist in Solo before from time to time. Then we confirm it by the historical data of the Solo city and the Gatsu street history.
In Indonesia, Mural has a long history itself. Its presence can be traced through a large scribble on a train car during the 1945–1949 revolution period, “Merdeka Ataoe Mati,” (Freedom or death) which was written in large letters as a warning to NICA troops’ return threatened Indonesian independence. Then, the re-interest in murals cannot be separated from the context of the collapse of the New Order, which ruled Indonesia for approximately 32 years (Pramana & Irfansyah, Citation2020).
In Indonesia, the emergence of murals can be found at least since the revolutionary period. The mural was developed in Yogyakarta. They express that the protest covered the city walls ravaged by the war that raged during the action against the Dutch. Then, since the collapse of the Orde Baru era, which marked the beginning of a period of political openness, various individuals and groups have emerged who have responded to this era of openness through their works of art. These include the People’s Cultural Institute, namely “Taring Padi” and “Apotik Komik,” two artist collectives in Yogyakarta. In 1999, they held a public art exhibition entitled “Sakit Berlanjut” (Pain Continues), which was held in Malioboro, Yogyakarta. Taring Padi’s work emphasizes the collectivity aspect with a message that is outspoken and tends to be provocative. They put up a mural poster right in front of the Yogyakarta DPRD office, depicting a herd of pigs wearing helmets and military boots caged in a stretcher. Some human figures wear hats, caps, and some are wearing T-shirts with the words “Persatuan Buruh Becak” (Pedicab Labor Association)written on them. Then, In the midst of the crowd, there is a figure clad in black that appeared with a text balloon that read, “Koalisi rakyat sipil demokratis. Hapuskan 38 kursi gratis di MPR DPR” (The coalition of democratic civilians. Abolish 38 free seats in the MPR DPR). Another text further reinforces the propaganda element of this text: “Demokrasi sejati adalah tanpa militer” (True democracy is without military). Meanwhile, Apotik Komik expresses itself using a comic visualization style that tends to be unconventional. They form human figures that have been deformed from cardboard drawn in Chinese ink, resulting in a strange figure (Pramana & Irfansyah, Citation2020).
In Solo, the mural had already existed since after reformation in Indonesia. It had known as graffiti. It is used for party propaganda such as PNI, PKI, and Bulan Bintang Party with the symbol of bullhead inside the triangle. It is called the democratic era: multiparty. After that, in the early orde Baru period (1970–1980) remarks by much young community appeared, the party mural not allowed at the time, only three-party that allow such as Golkar, PDI, P3. Then it changed into cultural expression as popular urban by the young community such as LEDHOK, Cross boy, Tar-tar boy club. They make the graffiti with their community’s name that appears on the wall in Solo. It is also turned into vandalism, then to erase the graffiti only with white paint. Then, appears vandalism movement in 1980–1990. The graffiti appeared again because of the new technology for wall painting, such as”pilox” paint became a trend. It is also used for a commercial for some brands, for example, Bentul Sejati as a cigarette brand. Then in early 2000, there was the young community from campus in UNS who built the mural as expression media. It is one of the first aesthetic murals in Solo led by Deny Tri Ardianto together with Tatuk Marbudi, Bejau Nayaka, Florist Sekartadji, and the bengkel komik community. They made a mural in two spaces, in the North and the East of Solo city. They make the Wayang Beber as an idea and decorative illustration with a considerable size. The mural function is to make the city beautiful and for expression media (Ardianto, Citation2021).
Based on the history above, there are no critical themes in Solo mural history before. However, the trend to make a critical mural just appeared recently. In several cities in Indonesia, many murals criticize the government, especially after the pandemic era in 2021. It has also happened in Solo, but not in an aesthetic way like other murals. For example, on 28 August 2021, One of them was graffiti on the wall that read Negaraku Minus Nurani ‘ (“My Country Minus Conscience”) in . dan “Orang miskin dilarang sakit” (“Poor people are not allowed to get sick). They make the words only with one color, and it looks like they just scribble it, without proper planning. Then also poster that stick on the some public space in Solo city, some of them is located in Ngarsopuro dan Gatot Subroto corridor. The Poster contains the critic about PPKM (restrictions on community activities due to the pandemic covid-19 outbreaks) with following text: ‘Berani mengatasi harus menghidupi’ (Dare to overcome must live) in . ‘Jualan Dipenjara, Nggak Jualan Mati Kelaparan’ (Selling Imprisoned, Not Selling Die of Hunger); ‘Kinerjanya yang diperbaiki bukan kritiknya yang dibatasi’ (His improved performance is not his limited criticism”).
Figure 2. One of the scribbles on the wall on Jalan Kusumoyudan, Stabelan Village, Banjarsari District, Solo before it was deleted. (CNN Indonesia/ Rosyid) accessed 28 October 2021.
Figure 3. Poster leaflets containing criticism of Solo.
Overall, the history of the Mural in Solo is never too criticized. They tend just to express emotion and creativity. However, the criticize statement just happened recently through tagging and poster, but not as a mural. Even though some scribble/tagging or poster contains criticism, it is not much. They appeared because of the pandemic condition and had already become a trend in other cities in Indonesia. So that maybe Solo is followed the trend about this criticism. Instead, it is just a word with unartistic value. Responding to the previous statement from Titus, if the mural is only for criticism, the problem is that Solo never has a history of criticizing with aesthetic way. It appears recently because of indeed a problem nowadays. However, the mural in Gatsu had emerged in 2018 with the initiative of the government (F.X. Rudy) and the legend artist in Solo (Prof. Sardono) to reduce the vandalism that ruined the face of the city; therefore, that the government needs to organize the city (Kusumo, Citation2020). Indeed, vandalism by some people in Solo is quite common with random words in order to scribble on the wall in some places. It happened in the middle of a mural project in Gatsu during the pandemic situation (Alimin et al., Citation2021).
The “Solo is Solo” project tends to emerge the creativity in Solo so that the people are freer to express their creativity. It is for open the possibility to activate the creative vibe for Solo artists and the young generation who have much energy. So there may be more voices, and maybe more criticism will appear, it will trigger much new discourse in Solo. Regardless of the pros and cons, this mural has proven to have reactivated people to think and be aware of the condition of their city. The pros appreciate, and the cons can provide suggestions and alternative solutions. This has proven to have reactivated the creativity of the solo community with the presence of other ways to criticize, such as the poster above, even though it is still in a simple form (Rudy, 2021).
Perhaps this mural in Solo does not contain criticism because it has just started, and if it continues to grow over time, it will form a more mature character and develop into criticism. Of course, there must be someone who socializes the actual function of the mural. This word of criticism shows that people tend to be brave or because the problems in the city or the country are getting bigger.
If we analyze from this perspective, it is reasonable that only a positive vibe in mural Gatsu. Because of the government-controlled the artist as the sponsorship. They had already made a deal before the project was held. The artist said that we could not make the ethnicity, religion, race, and inter-group relations issue as the theme or critic to provoke dissension. In this case, the artist is controlled by the government and with the position that is not free anymore to express their idea.
However, some people think that this is coercion to build a new city because of this. Commodification, taming through legalization by the authorities, directed to space, controlled and legitimized. It is even financed as a proven creative city cultural marker for urban bohemianism and tourism. However, it is often the beginning of gentrification, ironically removing residents/artists who are critical of the beginning. This is what is currently happening in the city of Solo regarding the mural problem (Setiawan, Citation2021).
According to Lefebvre, “this is a political program of urban reform” and “mature planning projects that consist of model and spatial forms and urban times without regard for their current feasibility or their utopian aspect,” resulting from popular imaginary and praxis, “which invests itself in appropriation (of time, space, physiological life, and desire),” and that also “include the way of living in the city and the development of the urban on this basis,” that is, that can reshape the city (Santos Junior & SANTOS JUNIOR, Orlando Alves dos, Citation2014).
Gentrification has been viewed as a “generalized urban strategy for municipal governments in collaboration with private capital in cities around the world” since the 1990s. The upper middle classes displaced the lower classes as the economy shifted from industrial production to post-industrial enterprise. Many Asian cities are seeing state-led gentrification, while local governments are using gentrification as an urban regeneration strategy: “At the expense of visual and conspicuous urban transformations led by local governments through activities such as festivals, exhibitions, and various cultural events, inter-urban competition intensifies the homogenization of urban landscapes, thereby dismissing everyday lives on the level of mundanity”(Hooi et al., Citation2021).
According to the statement above, the Gatsu mural is part of a government plan to gentrify the city. It is to turn the city into an urban city, which is currently increasingly popular. Furthermore, some argue that the Gatsu corridor is a cultural city with numerous historical occurrences and that turning it into an urban city will lose the cultural city’s history and mood. In this example, we must investigate the city of Solo and the Gatot Subroto street history to comprehend the city and determine why this painting appeared.
Solo is currently famous as a friendly city with very few conflicts. Some research results show that Solo is the city with the highest tolerance level; based on the Setara Institute, Solo is the top 10 most tolerant city among 94 cities in Indonesia (Isnanto, Citation2017). It was obtained from the diversity of the Solo people who come from different ethnicities and races. However, Solo is different from the past. Solo was a city with a high level of conflict, around 1965 when the PKI was rampant, known as the terrible bloody incident G30SPKI, Solo known as the red area, the term for an area that became the basis of leftist groups or parties, especially the Party Indonesian Communist (PKI). When the PKI purges occurred after 1965, not only were party members rolled up, people who were considered sympathizers were also legally obliged to be arrested (Matanasi, Citation2017). Solo became one of the areas for cleaning; even the edges of Bengawan Solo became a killing field. Solo is a city that is quite severely affected; many victims were quite large at that time. During the 1948 revolution, many leftist figures became victims. For example, Raden mas Gusti Abimanyu understood the left, Socialists, H. Misbah di Kauman, Puritanization movement, Muhammadiyah (Ricklefs, Citation2012).
It has a horrible history in Gatsu street. Like almost every two years in the past or after some political issue, the Gatot Subroto street (Kemlayan) will be the conflict outlet or target so that the mayor wants to change the vibe in the city to reflect togetherness. Moreover, many Chinese people in that place but never blend in with other people. They have permanently closed themselves and made a barrier with the wall. Moreover, Surakarta has had protracted conflicts that have given rise to various forms of violence and prejudice against ethnic Chinese. The Surakarta society suffered severe trauma as a result of this battle. It is essential to mediate disputes so that there is no social divide (Purbasari & Suharno, Citation2019).
The problem of the conflict was initially due to fighting over batik raw materials. The Muslims who initially made batik, the place was in the Laweyan area. Then the suppliers of these materials are Dutch people who are imported from abroad. At that time, the Dutch were more supportive of China, to import “Mori” cloth and batik wax and give them to China. This is where business competition occurs, and the natives lose. At that time, with the emergence of the Islamic reform of Muhammadiyah, transforming life into a modern direction, and the occurrence of competition, the Chinese made the organization called a “konsing” to strengthen the resistance. Indigenous people also formed the “Sarekat Dagang Islam” organization: initially, it was born from Solo founded by Raden Mas Tirto Ardi Suryo from the Priyayi circle, the son of the Regent of Blora. This organization was membered by “santri” (Islamic boarding school student) of Muhammadiyah organization, then it changed into “Sarekat Islam” (SI). So there was the competition between “Konsing” and SI in batik trading. The Chinese were considered competitors in trade, so this made them the target of the riot. In addition, China became a target for venting conflict because of the communist stigma. Around 1965, so that it became the goal for the arson in Solo City, there were several of them accused of being members of BAPERKI (Indonesian Citizenship Consultative Body, a mass organization that aims to oppose discrimination based on ancestry). The member was accused of being affiliated with the communist party. After that, the in Surakarta conflict between ethnic Chinese occurred since the Chinatown commotion in the 1740s which killed approximately 10,000 people (Purbasari & Suharno, Citation2019).
The second conflict is the Central Java racial riots of 1980 or it is also famous as the Urip Sumohardjo riots/Warung Pelem which is the name of the street from the front of the Mesen campus to the big market. The name was taken from the national hero General Urip Sumohardjo from the TNI (Indonesian army). This incident was a series of racial riots in cities and regencies in Central Java Province in 1980 (20 November 1980). The origin of the cause of this racial riot was a trivial problem that occurred in the city of Surakarta. The impact of this riot was the destruction of several public facilities in Surakarta and caused injuries to the Chinese descendants in Surakarta. This conflict was triggered by a dispute between SGO (a school sports teacher) and a Chinese thug. Which eventually involved UNS students as the pioneers, later becoming an anarchist anti-Chinese action. On Saturday, 22 November 1980, hundreds of students rode motorbikes. They threw stones at them. Houses and shops belonging to citizens of Chinese descent. Students also carried posters and shouted anti-Chinese slogans. They proceeded to loot, destroy, and burn houses, shops, and factories suspected to belong to Chinese people. The mobs also persecuted residents of Chinese descent who were found on the streets (Ricklefs, Citation2012).
The third conflict was during the May 1998 Riots, on May 14–15 to be exact, there were burnings and destruction of people’s houses and public facilities. Due to the resignation of Soeharto in disgrace on 21 May 1998, amid Indonesia’s worst rioting since his assumption of power in 1965 (Schwarz, Citation2018). Crowds in almost all cities took to the streets throwing and burning buildings as well as cars and motorbikes. Even looting. The streets targeted by the throwing and burning include Jalan Slamet Riyadi, Wisma Lippo Bank and Sami Luwes Stores, Matahari Super Ekonomi (SE) Supermarket, as well as the BCA Bank Sub-Branch in Purwosari, which is located in the surrounding area. Gatsu Corridor. In that year, every Rolling door at the Gatsu street shop belonging to Chinese descent was written with “milik pribumi” (native’s) pilox paint, for fear of being burned. The writing was also added with other scribbles. This writing was roughly the beginning of the emergence of graffiti. The Chinese and the riots in May 1998 where the Chinese suffered losses great physically, morally, and materially. Conflict then leaves a negative stereotype towards ethnic Chinese as a result of behavior and ideas that tend to be contradictory between ethnic Chinese and Javanese in Surakarta (Purbasari & Suharno, Citation2019).
In the Last conflict on 20 October 1999, two names competed for the presidential candidate, namely Megawati Soekarnoputri, promoted by the PDI-P, and Gus Dur, proposed by the National Awakening Party. Through a vote, Gus Dur was elected as the 4th President of Indonesia with 373 votes, while Megawati got 313 votes. Unable to accept this defeat, Megawati’s supporters went berserk. In Solo, Central Java, for example, a number of Megawati sympathizers carried out vandalism. Another fire occurred in the Solo area, such as at City Hall and bitch Gatot Subroto (R. Bambang Aris, Citation2011).
Solo is relatively safe after that. Despite this, the trauma is still present. It is called latent because it can reappear at any time. Mayor F.X Rudi recognized the problem and proposed a mural as one of the solutions to re-glue the latent social tensions of the conflict between indigenous peoples and Chinese so that they can mingle again. Apart from allowing residents to express themselves, it also serves as a form of reconciliation, re-familiarizing indigenous and non-indigenous issues. Indeed, Vera L. Zolberg said that a work of art will increase in value, when there is an element of history in it (Adler, Citation1991). Therefore, actually the choice of the location is very suitable since there is a long history behind it.
The walls were built high by the Chinese at Gatsu because the shop front was utterly destroyed during the dispute, and all the walls were replaced. When Pak Rudi became mayor, the mural’s main concern was vandalism, so it had to be removed, as well as adat reform. In addition to vandalism, one-time rowing promotes communal intimacy and healing through latent effects. Due to this project, they melted down and opened up more to others; Irul Hidayat, a member of the Gatsu mural production team, said they felt they could not get along with everyone, even Chinese people. This mural project may talk about a joint initiative and get along with all citizens, including Chinese descent (Hidayat, 0).
This mural indirectly mediates conflict and can mix between Chinese and Javanese, differences in status, privileges of the natives, economic competition that becomes a racial conflict. There was the root of the conflict between the Chinese and the indigenous and Solo. The central area in Solo. It became a cycle; every victim was there; the peak was when Suharto stepped down. The area was burned to the ground, May 1998, Gatot Subroto Singosaren. So the traumatic relationship between the Chinese and native people is powerful in Solo.
Despite the strife, Solo city, particularly Gatsu street, has a winning past because of its innovative individuals. It was popular producing many artists. We must first understand the history of Solo city and Gatsu street in order to make this statement
The name of Solo city was Kartasura that changed into Surakarta. It formed after the breakup of the Mataram kingdom around 1754, which is recorded in the Giyanti Agreement: splitting the Mataram kingdom. It divided into Royal city (Kasunanan) Surakarta led by Susunanan Pakubuwono and Kasunanan Yogyakarta led by Sultan Hamengkubuwono.
Then, the naming of cities is based on the leader’s name called “Toponimi.” There is one figure in the Solo area, namely Ki Gede Solo in the swamp area. Then, so Pakbuwono or Prince Puger was assisted by the Dutch, chose a location here, at the corner of the swamp, the port in Tuban Gresik, Haripriyatmoko, the kings of Solo used the Solo River as an economical route, making Langeng Harjo’s palace. So there is a Port, many ships, etc. from Solo. At the time of PB 4ʹs wedding, his wife from Madura, Bengawan Solo, boarded the ship, the head of the ship (the tip): the red giant (beautiful Rojomolo) the ship when Adipati Anom -bP4 proposed and married then bringing his consort from Madura in that port. Since then, the port of Solo has become famous and known as Bengawan Solo.
Since the foundation of the fourth Pakubuwono (PB) era, which is regarded as the precursor, the term Kemlayan (Gatot Subroto street) has been used. The name Kemlayan comes from the name Kamulyan means prosperity. From the 4th PB, settlements, or welfare for their citizens, are specific to segregation. Especially for the settlement of the narrator (pengrawit). Besides the “Societet Habiproyo” place: a room for entertainment, opera in Italy can be brought in, including gamelan.
Since independence day, especially the Orde Baru era, the Gatsu street has become the main area in Solo such as Malioboro in Yogyakarta, Singosaren, Coyudan, Nonongan: a circle that goes around the village of Kauman, the main area in the city of Solo. They Change Kemlayan into the Gatot Subroto for street names. It was random, depending on the government that stipulates. From the TNI era, General Gatot Subroto, his statue in the mayor’s house.
Many live in courtiers, artists, musicians, Sinden, dancers, gamelan musicians, and gamelan makers. All are educated to love art. The dance work is dedicated to the king. In the Kemlayan area, why become the center of the economy? There is a Singoraren market, Kanjeng Gusti, the son of the 10th Pakubuwono, Singosaren area, has developed into a commercial area. Manufacturer of fashion manufacturing—Sido Advanced (Chinese entrepreneur) ready to wear. Headbands appear called blanks—standardized sizes, and made the same in the manufacture, udeng ties—made blanks—blanks—standardized, such as sizes xl-l. Then batik is developed, became shops, then shopping centers, many Chinese traders who entered there. Coyudan—faceless place. Although this area is the site of keempuan kawitan and gending and gamelan production, it is also part of a manufacturing center for clothing, especially batik.
Settlements based on certain ethnicities. Within the structure of the Kasunanan state, or Surakarta Hadiningrat kingdom, the palace is a keraton, surrounded by people, leaders. The people in the city of Solo consist of different tribes, and each ethnic group has its place of settlement. It is called Social segregation that separates people based on race. This concept is from colonial rule, government based on skin color. White Europeans are located in Loji, Slamet Riyadi area to the west as first class. The second class is Vreemdeoosterlingen for foreign citizens (Chinese and Arabic) who gather to the southeast of the palace wall for the unique Arab village, Pasar Kliwon, and Chinese trading center/Chinatown in the big market, mbalong (the name of the Chinese settlement village around Pasar Gede Harjodaksino Surakarta) area. The last class is the natives, located in the typical villages: the natives get the rest. However, now it has mixed up, where the strategy is on the roadside, all Chinese people enter places like Jalan Gatsu because they have money, the sugar factory previously owned by the Dutch has also become Chinese owned the conglomerate Oei Tiong Ham.
Gatsu in the past is well known as Kemlayan village. Now, Kemlayan village has indeed changed. The siege of a business building that is looking for a sheer profit has drowned him even more. In the past, this village was famous as a warehouse for leading artists in Solo such as Krishono’s, Gitopangrawit, Djarwopangrawit, Ngaliman’s, Kridha Pradangga, and Bromartani (artist community; Priyatmoko, Citation2020).
Kemlayan deserves to be called a robust ecosystem in the arts. The concept of ecosystem refers to the recognition of the interrelationships between living things and their complex environment. The artist residential ecosystem is stimulated by public spaces that provide a stage for Kemlayan artists to show their abilities. For example, there is a theatre/performance: Societeit Habipraya (now replace as Matahari mall) on the west of Kemlayan village, Gedung Sonoharsono in Pon Market, and Bangsal Pradangga in Sekaten event. That place was for cultural performance and relaxation for priyayi (high class)/ amusement for entertainment and conglomerates (Priyatmoko, Citation2020).
The people of Kemlayan occupy the middle social layer, between the Sentana Dalem (the royal family) and the wong cilik (poor people). Kemlayan residents belong to the category of small communities; the residents know each other and get along intimately. They bind their community more tightly in their daily interactions. The large frequency of interaction in the community is supported by the implementation of artistic activities, such as singing (gending) exercises, Sekaten events, seba: accompanying dance performances at the palace, following the king holding the recreation areas, and responding to musical performances outside (Priyatmoko, Citation2020).
According to the text above, It can be concluded that Gatsu has many artists in the past, and creativity was alive in the area, but now Gatsu is not like it used to be. It has lost its artists and an intense artistic atmosphere. However, Gatsu changed to a trading place rather than the creative place. With the existence of this Gatsu, it provides a space for expressing creativity and reviving the artistic atmosphere in the Kemlayan Village or Gatsu street now.
From the description above, we need to confirm that from other cities or other countries that also make the mural with the purpose to branding/beautify the city and not as criticize, then to reduce conflict and to forget bad memories or to melting the society, for example: in Johannesburg, South Africa; Penang, Malaysia; and, Ihwa, South Korea.
There is a rule in Johannesburg, South Africa, that the city must adhere to in order to create a city. In the previous two decades, urban planning has seen significant changes. The construction of major cultural projects, such as landmark architecture, museums, art complexes, opera houses, and so on, is one feature. In this context, art—especially installed in public spaces—has gained a more significant role in urban marketing since it appears as an additional tool to transform a city’s image and identity. In a context characterized by a crisis of the modern city, a decline of the industrial sector, and an increase of the recreational activities, culture in general and art, in particular, have been seen as too (Guinard & Margier, Citation2018), so that Johannesburg uses the mural as the strategy to improve or change the city image into a friendly city.
In Johannesburg, the mural began with the community, which began because many young people were unemployed and utilized murals to express their frustration at not finding work. However, the government was driving it because it wanted to improve the city’s image, and it did require a considerable sum of money to create a spectacular mural of such a large scale and supporters who were none other than the government itself. Even though there is plenty of politics there, the artists are also looking forward to the city’s bright future and creating some outstanding work along the way which can be seen in (a).
Figure 4. (a) Mural by Falko in Newtown. (b) Boy on a bike by Ernest Zacharevic. Armenian Street. (c) Fish Staircase, 2015.
Second, Penang, Malaysia, has had a similar occurrence with Solo. The city had already been transformed into a mural town as a tourist attraction by the government. If the groups can influence both the local and international art communities and government plans for Penang’s creative economy, they will gain a crucially important role. The concepts addressed here apply to a wide range of conservation and heritage management projects, mainly where local communities require assistance or could play a unique role. Within communities, there is a tension between historical preservation and innovation, and different organizations or groups have varying appetites and skills for implementing innovation (Hooi et al., Citation2021). The example of the mural in Penang Malaysia can be seen in (b)
Located in north-central Seoul, “Ihwa Mural Village” (hereafter also simply Ihwa) as a popular destination for domestic and international travelers to a 2006 state public art initiative meant to revitalize old residential neighborhoods in decline. But recently it has been damaged by a group of graffiti who refuse to become a tourist village(Park & Kovacs, Citation2020). One of the example of the mural in Ihwa, South Korea can be seen in (c).
According to the text above, these three cities have a similar purpose with a mural in Gatsu Solo that tends to improve the city, reduce vandalism, encourage the potential economic to add income to the city and build the city image.
The presentation of these mural categories was excellent. As a beginner, Solo city managed to exhibit its existence and play roles as a city with an active art community. However, some aspects need to be taken into consideration to improve this mural project. Because through a mural which has ideas and meaning as well remains framed with aesthetic and ethical values which is directly related to the environment city, then visualized the mural by artists or teamwork on public spaces, this will encourage human (society) in maintaining and preserving the city environment (Gazali, Citation2017).
Most of the murals prioritized the visual aspects before the messages. It is a stepping stone to trigger the art community in Solo city, particularly the mural community.
4. Conclusion
This research analyzed the meaning of the Murals in Solo from the visual appearance to the history behind it. In short, it has less relation to the government intention. The artists actually only create the artwork with their own style. However, as one of the mural sponsored, It was said by the government that the artists need to make beautiful murals. Instead the mural has three meanings that can be seen below this text.
The first meaning as the factual meaning can be seen in the physical appearance. We found that the character of the mural is varied. They include many styles for one mural. However, most of them combine the pop art style with other styles, such as realistic and decorative. So that we conclude, the style of the mural Gatsu is eclectic and also contemporary that tend to be experimental so that it combines different styles to establish the identity and character of the mural. Due to the condition that mural in Solo is about to start again, therefore the style it tend to be follow modern people interest.
The second meaning from the iconography analysis can be seen in the history of the mural above. It can be concluded that the Mural in Gatsu has a positive theme. Despite the different concepts and messages, these murals are similar in that they did not contain negative meanings (e.g., satire or criticism). They merely show good, peaceful messages. The visual characteristic of murals in Solo is the representation of good figures that resembles the Solo’s image as a friendly city. It confirm by the history of mural that experience the alteration from the critic of public into the part of gentrification action.
The third meaning is to reduce the conflict and to build the creative space in the special place which is Gatot Subroto street. In fact, Surakarta has been through many conflicts, specially in the area of Gatot Subroto where the murals project realized. Such as the G30SPKI incident, the central java riot, the revolution, and the national awakening party. These conflict brought trauma for people in the Surakarta city, especially from the local people and the ethnic Chinese. Furthermore, these murals tends to improve the value of the Gatsu corridor. Since Gatsu street (Kemlayan) used to be popular as the warehouse of artists in Surakarta. Therefore, this location is very suitable to heal the trauma in the past, so that, the community can intertwined each other, no matter their ethnicity. Then, at the same time, people can use this place as a creative public space to express themselves that can contribute to the reviving the artistic atmosphere. As the confirmation data, we found that murals in Johannesburg, South Africa; Penang, Malaysia; and Ihwa, South Korea, have the same purpose and characteristics as the mural in Gatsu Solo that more focus to beautify and improve the city become the new tourism destination related to commodification and gentrification in the tourism fields.
Acknowledgements
This research sponsored by LPPM Universitas Sebelas Maret by Penelitian Unggulan (Excelent Research) PNBP program. We would like to express our great appreciation to F.X. Hadi Rudyatmo, Prof. Sardono W Kusumo, Pak Sony, Pak Irul, and Mas Don Art Mural’s Community for their valuable response and contribution to this research.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Nurhayatu Nufut Alimin
This research is conducted by Design and Humanities research group in the Faculty of Art and Design sponsored by Universitas Sebelas Maret through the Excellent Research: PNBP program from 2020 to 2021. The first author of this research is Bedjo Riyanto, he is a chairman of the academic senate of the faculty of art and design. He is also an associate professor in Visual Communication Design, at Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia. His research areas include the history of visual communication design, critical cultural studies, and the history of advertisement. He has published his research in reputable journals such as Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education, Mudra, Panggung, etc. The other members of this research group are Nurhayatu Nufut Alimin, Apika Nurani Sulistyati, and Novia Nur Kartika Sari who came from different departments such as interior design, textile, and fine art respectively.
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