Bangkit/Arise, Megan Wilson, Clarion Alley, Mission District, San Francisco, 2018
Bangkit/Arise is an international arts exchange and residency between artists from the San Francisco/Bay Area, USA and Yogyakarta Indonesia. The lead sponsoring organization for Bangkit/Arise is Clarion Alley Mural Project, based in San Francisco in collaboration with the Asian Art Museum Chong Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture. The projects partners in Yogyakarta Indonesia are Desa Panggungharjo and the Institut Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta.
In July/August 2018 five of the artists from the SF/Bay Area – Kelly Ording, Jet Martinez, Jose Guerra, Christopher Statton and Megan Wilson arrived in Yogyakarta to spend 5 – 7 weeks as part of the residency exchange. Unfortunately because of greater geopolitical circumstances, two of the Bay Area artists – Shaghayegh Cyrous and Keyvan Shovir were unable travel and to be a part of the first phase of the exchange; however, they are still very much a part of the exchange and will be traveling to Yogyakarta as soon as it is possible.
On September 3rd six of the Yogyakarta artists – Nano Warsono, Bambang Toko, Ucup, Wedhar Riyadi, Vina Puspita and Harind Ndarvati arrived in San Francisco to spend 8 weeks in the Bay Area getting to work with our communities here. Sadly, one of the Indonesian artists – Codit – was unable to be a part of the current residency in San Francisco due to greater geopolitics; however, he too is still part of the exchange and will travel to San Francisco when possible.
End Apartheid B.D.S.
As part of Bangkit/Arise CAMP co-director Megan Wilson replaced her most recent mural on Clarion Alley (Stop The Corporatocracy) with one also in solidarity with Palestinians for peace, justice, and the right of return and claim to their land. She had lots of help/support from partner and CAMP co-director Christopher Statton, as well as Bangkit/Arise Yogya artists Vina Puspita, Nano Warsono, Harind Arvati, and Ucup.
Unfortunately, starting in early October a series of Zionist hate crimes against our murals began (in addition to one attack of MAGA – Make America Great Again – hate messages on seven of our murals). As of November 17, 2018 there have been 8 targeted attacks against our murals that are in support of Palestine and human rights. A good definition of Zionism is the following:
A race supremacist, colonialist, extremist. One who believes in a political ideology that hijacked Judaism, soon to hijack Christianity.
‘Many Zionists don’t believe in god but believe god gave them Israel’ – Ilan Pappe
Zionism was founded by atheistic Jews in 1897, an ideology originally supported by the anti-semitic British government of the early 1900’s who wanted to push European jews out of the UK and Europe and send them to the middle east. Of course many European Jews were against being sent to the Middle East and saw Zionism as an anti-semitic movement. After the 6 day war was won, more and more Jews realised there was a good chance of having their own state and Zionism became entwined with Jewish nationalism. Still to this day there are many Jews that are anti-Zionist and consider Europe or another country as their homeland, not the middle east. There are less and less younger Jewish Zionists as they realise the connection between Zionism and the occupation, genocide and apartheid of the indigenous population of Israel (Palestinians).
These hate crimes were covered in the following publications:
The Guardian
KQED
NBC Bay Area
SF Examiner
SF Weekly
CAMP’s community has come out in full force to help with the restoration of the murals and to make donations. As CAMP Co-Director Megan Wilson noted to The Guardian’s Julia Carrie Wong: “They want to silence us, and they’re not going to,” Wilson said. “Because we are fierce and we don’t back down. If anything, we just get stronger through this.” And in fact,
An unexpected outcome of these crimes is that CAMP’s co-directors and artists are now in the alley regularly repairing the murals from the Zionist attacks and it’s been great to have the opportunity to talk with so many folks from around the world about the murals and the issues being addressed – educating folks on what the meanings behind the murals are, such as the non-violent form of protest B.D.S. – Boycott, Divest, Sanction, that was highly effective in helping to end apartheid in South Africa.
END APARTHEID BOYCOTT DIVEST SANCTION SILKSCREEN
In addition, as part of Bangkit/Arise Wilson created a silkscreen poster that combined both murals she created for the residency/exchange – Urip Iku Urup and End Apartheid B.D.S.:
Bangkit/Arise is designed to foster discussions, understanding, and action on critical social/political issues facing our global and local communities today using art as a point of departure. Subjects being addressed include:
- Community development and the role of art in supporting Civic Design through:
- Creating a culture of creativity;
- Placemaking;
- Community building and networking;
- The engagement of residents and visitors/tourists; and
- Economic growth and livelihood – the creative economy;
- The role of the public commons;
- Environmentalism and the critical need for a call to action;
- Current geopolitical divisions, xenophobia and how we envision a world rooted in social justice, equity, and collaboration;
- The need for radical inclusion and understanding differences and similarities as a means of strength and the goal of collectively dismantling local and global inequities/oppression.
SEMANGAT!