Grateful for the diversity of the city of Bandung

Kang Iman started his presentation by explaining the characteristics of Bandung as a city. Bandung is a city that is open to cultural diversity, accepts anyone who comes with various purposes regardless of background. Besides, Bandung has many institutions and universities, so Iman considered Bandung as a City of Education and Arts.

Iman shared his experience as a lecturer at the Indonesian Cultural Arts Institute (ISBI) Bandung. At least 235 cultural arts performances - not including films, fine arts, and literature- were staged in 2019. When he became the Art Director of Bandung, around 2,700 artists participated, totaling more than 150 shows.

Art Knows No Background

Kang Iman believes that you don't have to be an artistic person to produce a work of art (art). Many well-known artists have no artistic background, such as chemistry, doctors, and engineering. "No matter what our background are, arts is everywhere. Arts builds reason, imagination, and uphold affection for anyone and anything," he said.

Celah Celah Langit Community as Rumah Tumbuh

The diversity that exists in Bandung motivates Kang Iman to create the Celah-Celah Langit (CCL) Community. This community is a community service to society, especially in the arts. This community is also a place to grow, which means that the house is a place to take shelter and a place to grow in civilization.

The CCL community has existed since 1985, and ITB students have been involved a lot since that time.

Most of the CCL activities have several themes arranged by its people. As a stage of preparation for the performance, art activists conduct research first and at the same time participate in practices such as farming with the community. Thus, the CCL community can become a forum for students and the local community to share and understand each other.

In the context of technology that continues to develop, Kang Iman does not close himself to developing the current digital era. Technology and the arts must go hand in hand to support one another. Technology can facilitate the introduction of arts and foster friendship in a limited pandemic situation like today.

Reporter: Maria Khelli (TPB, 2020)
Translator : Billy Akbar Prabowo (Metallurgical Engineering 2020)