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|   With Dr Oei Hong Djien and John Bergheuis
Langgeng Contemporary Art Workshop, Studio & Gallery started out from scratch, so to speak. I only had one thing as the company's asset: my love of fine arts. Yet, my determination to do something about (for) 'my love', no matter how small the contribution would be, remained unshaken by factual problems that I had to overcome. Before coming to that decision, I owned a small collection of paintings. A private collection that I loved to enjoy whenever I had time. In just a few years, the collection grew, and a special place must be built to host them. I thought it would have been wonderful to share them with whoever was concerned, so for a while I had been giving personal friends and business acquaintances a treat of going around the private gallery at home. It was in gaining this pleasure that I found that some of them had a passion for fine arts, too. The discovery convinced me that a professionally-managed art space in town would be something good. Magelang is a small town, around which there are nothing but villages and fields of tobacco and vegetables. The atmosphere is perfect for those who love tranquility, and facilitates contemplative mood. The climate is cool as in Javanese mountain resorts. And the people are like coming out of Indonesian tourism brochures: they are genuinely friendly and helpful. (See photos of Magelang) Perhaps those are parts of the reasons why my big-city friends often 'run away' to Magelang and to Langgeng Gallery. The gallery itself couldn't have been luckier in its location: it is practically 'across the street' from the main attraction of the town itself, the Langgeng Park. In fact that's where I got the name of this enterprise. 'Langgeng' is a Javanese word. It must be difficult to pronounce if your mother-tongue is not Javanese: 'laanq-ghank'.It means 'eternal', 'eternity', 'forever', 'everlasting'. But, frankly, I didn't dare to hope that the gallery would outlive its inauguration night. It's true that there is no other gallery in Magelang, and in the entire province of Central Java there are only a few, but Magelang is close enough to Yogyakarta where fine arts, as well as literature and every sort of traditional arts, have been developing vigorously for the last hundreds of years. No matter how determined I was with it, the fact is I had never managed an art space before. I had qualms about dealing with artists, many of whom are unique personalities who can make ordinary persons like me exhausted from trying to communicate with them. And last but not least, I had to finance the gallery myself, using all personal resources I had and arrears from other businesses, because the Republic of Indonesia could only be expected to hand in congratulations, at most, at such individual enterprise. What if the gallery would only drain my limited resources? However, I ignored my misgivings and proceeded with the plan. It was a tremendously pleasant surprise to me that even ordinary tobacco merchants that I know supported the idea, while public figures such as famous poets and painters gave me the support I needed to go on, as well. On March 11, 2002, Langgeng Gallery was opened. (See photos of Langgeng Gallery) I invited Sutanto of Mendut Studio, Magelang, to perform that night. Sutanto, a well-known artist and musician, has been my strongest supporter in this 'adventure', precisely because he often criticizes what I'm doing. I'm really grateful for that. And so today Langgeng Gallery is still standing, and it is still even growing.I have come to know a lot more people all the past few years after Langgeng was born. I learned a great deal from artists and thinkers, authors and poets, and every art lover that came my way. Dr. Oei Hong Djien, for instance, the best-known private art collector in Indonesia, has been so kind to grace the art events at Langgeng Gallery with his presence. The most famous Indonesian poet, Rendra, has held poetry-reading at Langgeng Gallery. Prominent art curators and well-known personalities, such as Joanna Lee of Singapore, Prof. Werner Krauss of Germany, Chinese contemporary artists, and Indonesian artists who have been working and living abroad, have also been kind to patronize the gallery. (See photos of Langgeng Gallery's Performances, photos of Langgeng's Poetry Reading, and photos of Langgeng's Literary Events) As for the artists whose works have been among Langgeng's collection, you could see the names at Our Collection page. Those are only a small fraction of the entire collection that I could display online for the time being. It is my greatest hope that Langgeng Gallery would continue to enjoy the favor of Indonesian and foreign artists, curators, and collectors in the future, as well as being able to facilitate art events as it has been doing so far. Welcome to Langgeng. Deddy Irianto
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