EAST SIDE GALLERY MEETS SURABAYA

EAST SIDE GALLERY MEETS SURABAYA

The East Side Gallery is a permanent open-air gallery located on the Berlin Wall in Mühlenstraße, Berlin-Friedrichshain. The gallery consists of a series of murals painted directly on the remaining 1,316 m of the Berlin Wall. After the fall of the Ber-lin Wall in 1990, 118 artists from 21 countries painted murals on this section as a commentary on the social changes that occurred in 1989/1990. Inspired by the East Side Gallery in Germany, we wanted to adapt a similar approach for the design of a wall lining a corridor at Wisma Jerman. The design carries the spirit of the Berlin East Side Gallery but at the same time it identifies with the city of Surabaya to represent the Indonesian-German cooperation and exchange in Surabaya.

The event featured a number of suburban culture actors from Surabaya and a variety of activities like murals & graffiti, hip-hop dance and rap performances, a DJ performance, “Mouth Opera” art exhibition as well as a number of workshops related to hip hop culture and graffiti art.

“East Side Gallery Meets Surabaya” was held on 18th of May 2024 with more than 100 people in attendance. In his opening speech Mr. Mike Neuber, Director of Wisma Jerman, explained the history of the Berlin East Side Gallery and how the idea for this event developed originally for the 30th anniversary of Germany’s reunification but eventually had to be postponed due to the Corona pandemic. Besides Mr. Mike, short welcome words were also delivered by XGo (Bunuh Diri Art Studio) as the art director of “East Side Gallery Meets Surabaya”, Hari Ghulur as co-founder of Sawung Dance Studio, which contributed to the event with a dance performance and a workshop, as well as Nona as talent manager of Blackroc Guerilla which supported the event with musical performances by two of Blackroc Guerilla’s artists.

The opening session was attended by several VIP guests including Mr. Christopher Tjokrosetio (Honorary Consulates of Germany). Mr. Nishimoto Tadaaki (Consulate General of Japan), Mr. Isaac Chiu (Taipei Economic and Trade Office), Mr. Bona Napitu (Director of La Salle College Indonesia), Ms. Pramenda Krishna (IFI Surabaya), Mr. Kahar Salamun (General Manager of Majapahit Hotel Surabaya), Mr. Ibnu Sholichin (Dean of Architectural and Design Faculty – UPN Veteran Jawa Timur) and Mrs. Vira Murti (Tourism and Cultural Department of Sidoarjo).

One of the highlights of the event was a talent competition, which featured six hip hop talents focusing on freestyle rap, breakdance and beatbox. Mr. Brampi from the legendary Surabaya hip hop group SAGA, Ms. Nona from Blackroc Guerilla and Mr. Mike Neuber acted as judges for the competition. Guests had ample opportunities to win interesting prizes and enjoy the food and drink provided by our generous sponsors. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all sponsors and supporters of the event.

As part of the event “East Side Gallery Meets Surabaya”, Wisma Jerman hosted the “Mouth Opera Art Exhibition” by XGo. XGo is a visual artist from Surabaya focusing on street art and urban art. As a street artist, he is creating works in the form of murals, graffiti, stencil art and wheat paste since 2000.

The pieces exhibited by XGo in this 7th solo exhibition titled ‘Mouth Opera’, which was held on 18th-22nd of May 2024 at Wisma Jerman, are personal stories packaged in the form of visual artworks. The 25 pieces on display were created in 2023 – 2024. “Mouth Opera” tells about the commotion that occurs on social media and in public spaces. XGo interprets his exhibition as Parade Cocot Kencono, which is a Javanese term for how someone can change the situation about something with his words. In his art he describes the behaviour of people online which is often characterized by rowdy tweets and comments, people fighting their respective quarrels and all kinds of conflicts, which results in a constant noise online. For XGo, the virtual world, which should be a pseudo world, “becomes a world of reality which makes the real reality disappear by erasing distance, space and time”. While social media is originally created as a means of communication between humans, it has now changed its function to become a medium for quarrels, propaganda, incitement, cursing and insults which ultimately creates factions and polarization. This continuous noise on social media ultimately has an impact on the real public space.

The second day of the exhibition featured two workshops. There were a hip hop dance workshop by Hari Ghulur (Sawung Dance Studio) and a paper mask workshop by Kelas Semesta. The dance workshop was attended by 15 teenagers. After the dance workshop, in the afternoon, the activities continued with a paper mask workshop for kids. 20 kids joined the paper mask workshop, all of the paper mask participants received special merchandise gifts from UK Petra. The three best and most creative masks also received a special gift from Leeven & Co.

The third day featured a movie screening of “Batu Suli Menggapai Mimpi”, a documentary about XGo and his team (Bunuh Diri Art Studio) painting a cultural village in Batu Suli, Central Kalimantan with murals as part of the “Mural Adventure Project”. The screening was accompanied by an artist talk about the growth and development of street art in Surabaya and East Java. The discussion was moderated by Evandafoxx (Dilarang Duduk) and presented XGo and Ayos Purwoaji (writer, art curator and researcher).

On the fourth day of the exhibition a mural painting workshop was held by Bunuh Diri Art Studio. It was attended by 10 people. The participants had an opportunity to learn how to make a simple mural painting using the TCS (Tracing-Cutting-Spraying) method.

Thank you very much Pizza Hut Delivery, Cheers Mineral Water, Kopilaborasi, Leeven & Co, Astaganaga, Chez Moi and Omamamio Gelato. We would also like to thank Harian Disway, NgopibarengID, She Radio, Dilarang Duduk and Artchemist who supported the event as media partners. To all those involved in the success of this event, we look forward to welcoming you again at our upcoming events.