Babanton

babanton art

the good neighbours agree to always agree

Bunga Siagian & Ismal Muntaha

The word saling bantu (mutual assistance) is meant to separate it from the terminology ‘collaboration’, ‘participation’, ‘involvement’, ‘cooperation’, words that are widely used to explain community-based art practices. Not only do those words arise from a different context in the art scene, but in the context of language they are also not sufficient to explain the situation of Jatiwangi, as the rural centre of Indonesian clay production. Saling bantu is the Indonesian translation for the Sundanese babanton, which unfortunately does not capture its precise meaning, nor does the English translation ‘helping each other’ (translator’s note: ‘mutual assistance’ or ‘mutual aid’ may be more appropriate terms, although they still may not capture the full extent of the meaning). Babanton is distinct from the words collaboration, joint work, gotong royong (the well-known ethos in Indonesia regarding collective work), and other similar words that presuppose as well as rely on goodwill, willingness, agreement, and the need to do something together. However, it has its limitations: it applies to collective needs (not personal needs, therefore it is often institutionalized by the state). It is spontaneous and current (of urgent needs, such as clearing clogged sewers, and so on), and cannot be romanticized as an ever-present value in a community.

Babanton is a game. It is crucial to understand the gameplay. First, from its terminology: in Sundanese, ‘help’ (Indonesian: bantu) is translated as ‘banton’, but the word babanton contains a repetition of ‘banton’. It means the help is reciprocated, like in a game. babanton is a societal value in Jatiwangi. As a game, it starts from individual needs. In neighbourhood social practices, as a good neighbour, it is a social obligation to help a fellow neighbour who is having hajat (event, ceremony, errands). Therefore, we need to sacrifice our ‘time’, even if it’s work time. It subsequently establishes a social ‘currency’ that uplifts our dignity as people living in a community. A help from our neighbour, as a currency, may be exchanged in times of need.

JaF artistic practices engage with the spirit of the community’s babanton. In the early days of JaF, many initiations or art projects were nothing but but hajatan presented by JaF that were held by Arief Yudi’s family—a distinguished family in the village (his brother Ginggi was the Village Head at the time). The neighbours acted as good neighbours to do babanton in the artistic activities, whether they understood them or not, needed them or not. What they knew was that the neighbour was having a hajat and was in need of help. Afterwards, automatically, JaF would also be involved in this mutual assistance game by being a good neighbour, from providing a sound system and a stage on a neighbours’ hajat, designing logos for neighbours’ products, making or editing videos, documenting pre-wedding photos, to merely fixing printers. One time, Ginggi blurted, ‘Any talk of art in society without ever helping a neighbour’s hajat or attending a neighbour’s funeral is utter baloney.’

Let’s imagine that JaF’s neighbours are also other community members, local governments (at least Arief Yudi’s schoolmates or Ginggi), roof tile factory entrepreneurs, police, and other institutions. Then, automatically, they will be involved in the babanton arts that manifest in the ever-expanding collective artistic practices, in which tanah is exalted within. This interplay between art and babanton enriches them both; art expands the babanton practice into not just an individual matter—celebrating a marriage or making a house is being turned into larger collective works. On the other hand, babanton restores art to an important position in creating the imagination and action of a living space that is good for collective life.