Puan Maharani: The SIPA 2023 Event Successfully Branded Solo As The City Of The Art Festival

Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Puan Maharani. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Puan Maharani, said that the Solo International Performing Arts (SIPA) 2023 succeeded in naming or branding Solo City as a city of performing arts festivals in Indonesia.

"SIPA 2023 has been going on for three nights smoothly and successfully, where it managed to brand Solo City as a city of performing arts festivals," said Puan when closing SIPA 2023, Saturday, September 2, quoted from Antara.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives closed the SIPA 2023 series which was held at Vastenburg Fort, Solo, Central Java. He also called art a universal language that can connect all levels of society.

Art is a universal language that connects all of us. Through art such as various performing arts from various countries that we have witnessed in SIPA 2023, we seem to be talking beautifully between one country and another," he said.

SIPA is a performance art festival held every year in the city of Solo, by presenting various performance arts from various parts of the world.

In addition, SIPA is also included in the Kharisma Event Nusantara 2022 calendar of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemenparekraf RI).

SIPA 2023 will be held from August 31 to September 2, 2023. Followed by seven countries, namely Indonesia, Lithuania, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

This year, SIPA takes the theme "Say All with Art" or "Say everything with art". The theme aims to revive the spirit of beauty of art in life.

The theme is in line with the art which is considered a center of beauty and is expected to keep life beautiful. Puan also assessed that the art of performance will bind conscience to the beauty of togetherness.

"With performing arts, we are talking from heart to heart. Feeling connected, through the richness of our respective countries' cultures and arts," he added.

On the first day of the mascot of SIPA 2023, Wirastuti Susilaningtyas collaborated with dozens of background dancers from Semarak Candra Kirana. Wirastuti presents a work entitled Simponi Selaras, a contemporary dance work that combines elements of sound, motion, and property.

On the second day, nine domestic and foreign delegates appeared to attract the audience to come. Shofa Sophiyah and Tilik Sarira Creative Process became the first delegates to show their skills.

They performed theater and dance art collaborations with the theme of ancient humans in Sangiran, Sragen Regency. Followed by performances from other domestic delegates, namely Bandung, Solo, Kendari, Banjarmasin, Riau, and Medan.

On the last day, SIPA 2023 featured a delegation from Taiwan, the Chinese Youth Goodwill Association with a De-framing the Tradition with Top and Cube Dancings show.

After that, it was followed by the appearance of the Art Process Terminal (TOS) from the Kutai Kartanegara City Education and Culture Office with the theme Music of Tingkilan Tradition and Jepen Kutai Greeting'.

The event was also enlivened by dance performances from Adicipta Paundrakarna Production, Paundrakarna production house which is also the grandson of the 1st President of the Republic of Indonesia Bung Karno. Paundra is the son of the couple Sukmawati Soekarnoputri and Sujikusuma or Mangkunegara IX.

Puan then symbolically closed SIPA 2023 by hitting the nong musical instrument as a sign of the end of the event. Previously, Solo Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka was asked to hit the musical instrument as a sign of the start of the event.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives hopes that SIPA's annual agenda can be reopened next year and entertain various art connoisseurs, not only from Indonesia but also from all over the world.

"The 2023 SIPA has been going on for 3 nights, smoothly and successfully followed by 7 countries, namely, Indonesia, Lithuania, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. SIPA has branded Solo City as a city of performing arts festivals. I hereby declare SIPA is closed. See you at SIPA 2024," said Puan.