Just keeping track.. [9] (Matamata.com, The Jakarta Post)

Several photos of the exhibition have been uploaded by Pathindan here (many thanks :D).

Motulz put up a some photos about the exhibition here and Peter's last night in Jakarta here.


And here's another article from Matamata.com (Thanks, Tul!)

Peter van Dongen dan Rekan Pembuat Komik Indonesia


Mendengar nama Erasmus Huis alias pusat kebudayaan Belanda terasa betul aroma seriusnya. Yang tertanam dalam benak kalau bukan konser musik klasik pasti pameran lukisan yang bikin jidat mengkerut. Namun sepanjang bulan September ini kesan itu seolah sirna. Pasalnya, ada pameran yang bikin lidah berdecak lantaran tidak biasa-biasanya. Wah pameran apa ya?

Pameran yang dimaksud bertajuk “Peter van Dongen dan Rekan Pembuat Komik Indonesia” berlangsung antara tanggal 7-30 September 2005. Peter adalah penggambar komik asal Belanda dengan setting khas Indonesia. Komik Rampokan: Jawa racikan van Dongen berkisah tentang perjuangan kemerdekaan Indonesia, yang nota bene menjadi tanah leluhurnya. Buku ini diterbitkan di negeri keju pada tahun 1998 dan mendapat penghargaan Stripschappening untuk Buku Komik Terbaik tahun 1999 serta penghargaan Prix du Lion 1999 di Brussel.

Hajat ini sendiri digelar menandai perayaan 60 tahun kemerdekaan RI sekaligus diterbitkannya komik Rampokan: Jawa edisi bahasa Indonesia. Kemudian empat komikus lokal juga turut memamerkan karyanya di ajang ini. Mereka tergolong generasi muda dalam ranah komik lokal yang muncul di era 1990-an, masing-masing adalah Dwi Santoso alias Anto “Kapten Bandung” Motulz, Dwinita Larasati alias Tita, Muhammad Cahya Daulay alias Cahya dan Beng Rahadian alias Beng.

Ada puluhan item yang dipamerkan di tempat ini dan semuanya dipigura dengan manis. Karya-karya Peter yang tampak berupa artwork, salah duanya adalah versi asli Rampokan Jawa dan Rampokan Celebes. Bahkan dipajang pula halaman yang tampak masih tersisa coretan pinsil bahkan juga tipp-exnya. Versi surat kabar PS yang memuat komik Peter juga turut terpajang di dinding.

Sedangkan karya komikus lokal tampak pigura cover komik Kapten Bandung dari Motul bertajuk Kasus Tikus Tarka. Aroma kota Bandung terasa betul di sana, bukan hanya lewat penampakan angkot rute 03 jurusan Abdul Muis-Dago, melainkan istilah Tarka itu sendiri. Kependekan dari Taruna Karya ini adalah istilah khas di kota kembang yang berarti institusi kegiatan semacam Karang Taruna. Karya lain yang terhitung inovatif adalah coretan kartun dari Tita. Karya kandidat doktor ini malah cenderung lebih mirip catatan harian.

Pigura yang berisi halaman coretan Cahya lebih condong dengan gambar arsiran hitam putih. Cerita yang digelontorkanpun cenderung serius tidak seperti ketiga mitra lokalnya. Terakhir ada nama Beng yang cukup familiar di media massa. Di Koran Tempo ia kerap hadir menggambar komik. Pun di majalah komik lokal macam Wizard, sentuhan sosok kartunnya yang jenaka terasa akrab di mata.

Kalau ingin yang segar-segar, tak ada salahnya melangkahkan kaki ke Erasmus Huis. Kumpulan coretan yang menyejukkan itu dijamin bisa menjadi pelepas kepenatan, bahkan bagi mereka yang tak suka komik sama sekali. (bat)


From The Jakarta Post, 23 September 2005

Comic strips shed light on Indonesia's colonial past
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite his Indonesian roots, Dutch artist Peter van Dongen, 39, never spent a great deal of his time in this country and his work of art, an award-winning comic strip, was based solely on secondary sources such as old photos, soldiers' diaries and novels.

Yet, his best-known comic books Rampokan Java and Rampokan Celebes, two fictional stories about life in post-Independence Indonesia, contain breathtaking detail about daily attributes of the period, including people's daily clothing and their motifs, means of transportation, buildings and roadside advertisements.

Should the cartoon characters be erased from each panel, what would be left would be a realistic postcard view of cities in Java and Sulawesi, circa the 1940s.

Van Dongen uses a style that often features strong colors and a combination of cartoonish characters against a realistic background, a method he adopted from Belgian comic writer and artist Georges Remi, better known as Hergé, the creator of the renowned comic strip Adventures of Tintin.

In one panel from his comic Rampokan Java currently on display at the Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis, which depicts Kota railway station, West Jakarta, viewers will be enraptured to find a true-to-life scene of a structure that still exists.

Van Dongen has meticulously used the sturdy, majestic dome-shaped construction as the perfect setting for bustling traffic comprising passing military trucks, a vintage sedan, becak (pedicabs), street hawkers and bystanders.

Another panel, showing busy life in Surabaya's Chinatown, is another example of Van Dongen's devotion to verit‚-style imaging.

Each detail, from the figure of an old Chinese man in a plain white suit, a small crowd that throngs a street vendor selling traditional drinks to the roadside advertisement, is given equal treatment, and none stands out above the others.

In doing so, Van Dongen adheres to another technique used by Hergé, ligne claire, which uses clear, strong lines with the same thickness and importance, rather than using them to emphasize certain objects or as shading.

The method is sometimes also called the "democracy of lines".

Van Dongen's commitment to geographical and cultural accuracy was inspired by Hergé's monumental work, The Blue Lotus, which tells the story of Tintin's adventure in China.

Hergé meticulously researched his subjects prior to making the Blue Lotus, to a point where he befriended a Chinese student, Zhang Chongren, who introduced the Belgium artist to Chinese history, culture and the arts.

The plot of Rampokan Java and Rampokan Celebes revolves around protagonist Johan Knevel's struggle to confront his inner demons.

Knevel, an Indonesian-born Dutch soldier, was sent back to the country as part of a battalion that would once again occupy the newly liberated Indonesia.

Knevel deserted his company after killing his soldier friend and assumed a new identity before going on an odyssey to revisit his long-lost past.

Rampokan Java was copublished by Joost Swarte and earned both author and publisher the 1999 Dutch Prize for Best Book Design.

Van Dongen, whose mother was a Chinese-Indonesian who once lived in Makassar and Manado, visited a number of Indonesian museums to collect background material for Rampokan.

in box: Peter van Dongen and the new generation of Indonesian cartoonists exhibition runs through Sept. 30 Erasmus Huis Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. S-3. tel. 5250507 website www.erasmushuis.or.id
(I don't have any access to whatever image is in the "in box", though)