Carla Bianpoen's Sense of Upheaval

Even though she is 87 years old, Carla Bianpoen is still faithfully following the changes and developments in Indonesian art.

The following article was translated using both Microsoft Azure Open AI and Google Translation AI.

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Carla Bianpoen

Despite being 87 years old, Carla Bianpoen remains faithful in following the changes and developments of Indonesian art by attending exhibitions that are held up until now, especially in Jakarta. In the last 35 years, Carla has faithfully described that feeling of turmoil, which she said flowed naturally every time she enjoyed a work of art.

Not all works of art evoke feelings for Carla. In a casual conversation at her residence on Friday (21/7/2023), Carla stated this. She then reaffirmed herself by stating that she does not have the right to judge whether a work of art is good or bad. However, whenever she comes across a work of art that does not evoke any feelings in her, Carla chooses to remain silent and does not feel the need to write about it.

Carla is hesitant to be referred to as an art critic. She has never had any formal education in visual arts, thus lacking deep knowledge on the history of visual arts and its various theories. Carla is unwilling to rigidly segregate between good and bad works of art based on different theoretical foundations and historical knowledge.

When writing, Carla follows her emotions. She does not want to judge. However, Carla is not just a worshipper of the beauty of art. She wants to immerse herself in the social and political dynamics, especially the women's movement in recognizing humanity through equality. That is why, on June 26, 2023, Carla was awarded the Rooseno Award XI by the Rooseno Oktroi Bureau, an intellectual property rights consultant bureau in Jakarta.

Professor of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at the University of Indonesia, Melani Budianta, on behalf of the Rooseno Award Testimonial Council XI, presented an interesting title in her speech during the award ceremony. She wrote the title, "Carla Bianpoen: A Journalist and Critic of Contemporary Fine Arts Who Consistently Voices the Unheard".

The phrase "consistently voicing the unheard" was chosen by Melani to articulate the domination of male artists in the field of visual arts. Carla is recognized for consistently writing about the artwork created by women that have been neglected and unheard of.

The other Rooseno Award XI testimonial council members include Bambang Sugiharto, Dolorosa Sinaga, Inda Citranida, Mayling Oey-Gardiner, Melani W Setiawan, Mella Jaarsma, and Ninuk Pambudy. Carla's freedom to act and courage in documenting important events were also mentioned by Melani in her speech. She mentioned that during the reform era of 1998, Carla dared to sneak in a small camera that should have been left behind according to the rules, to meet with Vice President BJ Habibie, who later replaced President Soeharto.

Carla used the small camera to photograph a meeting of prominent women led by Saparinah Sadli when they met with Habibie. They expressed women's concerns about the violence and mass rape that occurred in May 1998. In the end, from that meeting, the National Commission on Women was established and still exists today.

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Carla Bianpoen

During a conversation at her home in Ciputat, Tangerang, Banten, Carla recounted that she was once in the same class as Habibie. Carla referred to Habibie by his nickname, Rudi. On one occasion, Carla asked if Habibie still remembered her. Habibie replied that he remembered Carla, a classmate during their junior high school years in Makassar, although it was only for one year.

"I was once in the same class as Rudi and at that time, Rudi already appeared to be very smart," said Carla, who has never been able to celebrate her birthday because her date of birth has never been recorded in 1936."

Childhood

Carla was born in the city of Makassar as the youngest of four siblings with a mother born in Ambon and a father born in Makassar. Carla spent her childhood speaking two languages, namely Makassar and Dutch. Later, Carla learned Indonesian language outside the country while studying in Germany.

Her father worked for a Dutch-owned shipping company in Makassar. When Carla was 11 years old, she was taken to the Netherlands on a ship that sailed for three months. They lived in Amsterdam for a year. Carla completed her elementary education there before returning to Makassar.

Carla then pursued her studies at the junior high school level at HBS Concordante, the same class as Habibie in Makassar. Political turmoil occurred. There was a rebellion by Colonel Andi Azis who rejected the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) in Makassar in 1950. The atmosphere in Makassar was not safe. This caused Carla's father to decide to move to the Netherlands until his retirement in the Netherlands. Carla continued her studies until she graduated from high school in 1954 and pursued a degree in social sciences at Wilhelms Universitaet, Muenster/Westfalen, Germany.

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Carla Bianpoen was found at her home in Ciputat area, Tangerang on Friday (21/7/2023).

"Until now, I have never pursued academic studies in fine arts. I simply flowed with my interest in fine arts," said Carla, who is also active in youth and student organizations from Indonesia in the Netherlands and Germany."

From this youth organization activity, Carla's Indonesianness grew. Once he was selected to take part in a program along the Thames river in London, England, the Student of Asia Meets Abroad program, for a week. In the program, participants were asked to present traditional art products from their respective countries. Carla also presented the traditional art of wayang, although she had never been familiar with it before.

During that time, Carla had a relationship with Bianpoen, an Indonesian student who studied architecture at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. They eventually got married in Germany in 1960. At that time, political turmoil between Indonesia and the Netherlands regarding the dispute over West Irian rights affected the policy that Indonesian citizens were not allowed to marry in the Netherlands.

One year after their marriage, Carla and Bianpoen decided to return to their homeland in 1961. They were blessed with two children, Mirah Miryatta and Ranan Samanya, who are now working as photographers.

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Carla Bianpoen, a journalist, writer, and art critic who received the Roosseno Award in 2023.

Upon arriving in the homeland, Bianpoen taught at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) before moving to work in urban development for the Jakarta Provincial Government. Carla raised her children until they grew up. After that, Carla decided to work at the World Bank in the Women and Development department from 1985 until 13 years later.

This is where Carla interacts and builds networks with various women's community organizations. Carla establishes relationships with women's movement figures such as Saparinah Sadli, Mayling Oei Gardiner, Nursjahbani Katjasungkana, Bianti Djiwandono, and others.

Apart from carrying out her duties, Carla also developed a hobby of writing. In fact, Carla was a freelance writer for an English-language daily print media, Jakarta Post. Carla is often asked to write about any artistic activity, but has not focused on fine arts.

There is a quite memorable memory, when tasked with writing about the artist Teguh Ostentrik who had just returned from Germany and was living in Depok at that time. This was around the year 1988. Teguh had many contemporary art thoughts, to the point where Teguh was nicknamed a metaphysical adventurer by the philosophy figures Toeti Heraty and Frans Magnis-Suseno.

The hobby of writing continues to grow. In fact, in a week Carla can present two of her writings, especially on fine art. Carla's art writings have been widely published in mass media other than the Jakarta Post, including Indonesian Times, Indonesian Observer, Garuda magazine,Travel Indonesia, The Jakarta Globe, Visual Arts Magazine, Asian Arts News, Tempo Daily,Tempo English Magazine, ArtRepublik, and CoBo Social.

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Carla Bianpoen

Reform

Carla was required to retire from the World Bank at the age of 62 in 1998, coinciding with the reform era. That was where Carla immersed herself in the women's movement to uphold the crown of humanity through the struggle for equal rights with her various writings.

Traces of Carla's writing about the women's movement can be traced from the book Indonesian Women The Journey Continues(2000) which Carla edited with Mayling Oei Gardiner. From visual arts, Carla's achievements can be seen in the book Indonesian Women Artists: The Curtain Opens (2007), which Carla edited with Farah Wardani and Wulan Dirgantoro.

Then there is another book by Carla which is entitled Indonesian Women Artists: Into The Future (2019). These last two books have become milestones for women's work in our field of contemporary art.

Carla's role is also highly needed as a judge in various art competitions and other artistic activities. Carla was previously a judge for the Bandung Contemporary Art Award and the Jakarta Academy Award in 2016.

Read also: Limasan, Mella Jaarsma's Metaphor

The role of a curator was also undertaken by Carla. In 2013, Carla became a member of the curatorial team for the Indonesian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale Arte, along with Rifky Effendy. Subsequently, in 2015, she acted as an advisor for the curatorial team for the 56th Venice Biennale Arte.

Carla is known to have good writing skills in English. Not surprisingly, Carla's writings are needed by several art institutions abroad, such as Art and The Nation, The Cultural Politics of Soekarno for the publication of the exhibition Beyond the Dutch at the Centraal Museum Utrecht, The Netherlands. There is another article by Carla entitled Han Sai Por: The Tao of her Soul for the Creative Workshop & Gallery catalog in Singapore.

For her work, Carla was given several awards including from Visual Arts Magazine, the Indonesian Government's Adikarya Rupa Award (2014). Until finally in 2023 Carla was awarded the Roosseno Award XI.

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Carla Bianpoen

Carla Bianpoen

Born: Makassar, 1936

Education : Wilhelms Universitaet, Muenster/Westfalen, Germany.

Work experience

- 1985-1998: World Bank Office, Jakarta.

- 1985-present: freelance writer of Indonesian contemporary art.

Award:

- “Visual” Arts Magazine 2011

- Adikarya Fine Art Award from the Government of Indonesia 2014.

- Rooseno Award XI 2023