Tamansari Flyover Bridge

As with many large cities, graffiti is a common sight in Bandung. Most of it amounts to little more than vandalism, and there appears to be nothing that can be done by local authorities, or perhaps they really don’t care that much. However, occasionally I will see graffiti that has some real artistic value. Since Bandung is such a nasty and trashed-out city, some nice graffiti/art work can’t do anything but help its appearance.

beneath the Tamansari flyover

I tried to ask our previous driver about taking me some place that I could photograph some nice graffiti but he never seemed to get what I was talking about. However, our current driver understands English very well and was not only accommodating when I asked him if he would take me to shoot graffiti, he even suggested a good location for me to go.

 

So this afternoon, he and I took off for the Tamansari Flyover (the term Indonesians use for bridges that go over a freeway).

The 3 signs above were one sentence on 3 separate columns. The words read "Independence or Death."

The Tamansari bridge alone presented me with all the opportunity I needed to photograph as much graffiti as I wanted! In fact, I took so many photos that I’ll divide this into 2 days postings so as not to overwhelm you in one sitting!

In the photo below, you will see the housing area (basically an urban slum) that sits next to the flyover. I only snapped one photo because there were people sitting outside watching me as I walked by. Any time we are in public, people stare at us as if we had 2 heads. And my camera doesn’t help matters, so in situations like that, I try to just grab a quick shot and keep walking.

The Tamansari valley area is very dense, with a population of around 300 persons per 2.4 acres. The people who live near the bridge are extremely poor. Seventy percent of the land in this area is owned by the government but when the people who were occupying the area illegally learned that the bridge was to be built (early 2000) and that many of them would have to resettle, there were protests and demonstrations. But eventually they were helped to resettle and the cable-stayed bridge was built.

The 3 above were only small sections of a long section of bridge, but enough to show the variety.

As you can see from the photos, some of Bandung’s more artistic residents have used the area underneath the bridge as space to express their creativity. I don’t pretend to know what all of the art represents but I think you’ll have to agree that these displays are a far cry from vandalism (or gang related) type graffiti that we often see in large cities.