Framing and Visualising Nationhood: Istiqlal Mosque and the Interiority of the Independence Square, Jakarta

Main Article Content

Issue Vol. 7 No. 2 (2024)
Published Jul 30, 2024
Section Articles
Article downloads 298
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v7i2.375
Submitted : Jul 31, 2023 | Accepted : May 8, 2024

Tutin Aryanti Amanda Achmadi

Abstract

Studies on interiority have profoundly shifted the perspective of looking at urban space as a socially constructed architectural product. This study examines the meanings invested by Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia and the patron of the mosque, in Istiqlal Mosque (1962) and the Independence Square using the lens of interiority. Rather than looking at the mosque as a single monument, this study considers the mosque and its time and spatial contexts as an architectural unity to make Sukarno's vision of nationhood manifest through the interiority of the Independence Square area in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital city. This study employed an architectural survey and documentation of Istiqlal Mosque and its surrounding built environment and analysed them using Derrida's (1978/1987) centre and margin theory. It is found that the Istiqlal Mosque was designed as part of the frame that reinforces the meaning of the interior of Independence Square, where the National Monument (1964), Sukarno's major monumental project, stands. Istiqlal Mosque was constructed to claim the newly established nation as the world’s most populous Muslim country and to communicate Sukarno’s idea of uniting Indonesia's diverse cultural and religious backgrounds through religious tolerance while declaring his firm standpoint in the 1960s Cold War.

Keywords: architecture and power, urban interiority, modern achitecture, monument, nationhood, state mosque

Article Details

How to Cite
Aryanti, T., & Achmadi, A. (2024). Framing and Visualising Nationhood: Istiqlal Mosque and the Interiority of the Independence Square, Jakarta. Interiority, 7(2), 251–272. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v7i2.375
Author Biographies

Tutin Aryanti, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia

Tutin Aryanti is an associate professor of architecture at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia, who is currently serving as the Regional Advisor for Southeast Asia for the Michigan State University's Science, Art, and Faith: Architectural Heritage and Islam project, funded by Templeton Religion Trust and a fellow at KITLV (The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) funded by the Graham Foundation Grant. She completed her doctoral degree in architecture with a minor in Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA). Her dissertation, entitled Breaking the Wall, Preserving the Barrier, was awarded as the Best Dissertation in Social Sciences in 2015 by the International Convention of Asia Scholars. Tutin's works revolve around gender and space, Islamic architecture, spatial justice, and postcolonial architecture.

Amanda Achmadi, University of Melbourne, Australia

Amanda Achmadi is an associate professor in architectural design, Asian architecture, and urbanism at the University of Melbourne. She obtained her PhD in Architecture and Asian Studies at the University of Melbourne in 2007. Her dissertation explores the role of architectural discourses within the 20th-century construction of cultural identity in Bali. Amanda is interested in looking at the interactions between architecture and identity politics and how these unfold in different historical periods: pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial eras. She has published extensively; one of her publications was a co-authored book chapter in Sir Banister Fletcher's Global History of Architecture (21st edition, 2019), which was awarded the 2020 Colvin Prize.

References

Anderson, B. R. O’G. (2006). Language and power: Exploring political cultures in Indonesia. Equinox.

Aryanti, T. (2007). Monumen Nasional and Sukarno’s political intention on Jakarta historical city. RUAS (Review of Urbanism and Architectural Studies), 4(1), 10–16.

Atmodiwirjo, P., & Yatmo, Y. A. (2021). Urban interiority: Emerging cultural and spatial practices. Interiority, 4(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v4i1.131

Batuman, B. (2016). Architectural mimicry and the politics of mosque building: Negotiating Islam and Nation in Turkey. The Journal of Architecture, 21(3), 321–347. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2016.1179660

Bryson, N. (1983). Vision and painting: The logic of the gaze. Yale University Press.

Budi, B. S. (2006). A study on the history and development of the Javanese mosque part 3: Typology of the plan and structure of the Javanese mosque and its distribution. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 5(2), 229–236. https://doi.org/10.3130/jaabe.5.229

Budi, B. S., & Wibowo, A. S. (2018). A typological study of historical mosques in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 17(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.3130/jaabe.17.1

Cudny, W., & Appelblad, H. (2019). Monuments and their functions in urban public space. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift-Norwegian Journal of Geography, 73(5), 273–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2019.1694976

Derrida, J. (1982). Différance. In A. Bass (Trans.), Margins of philosophy (pp. 1–28). University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1972)

Derrida, J. (1987). The parergon. In G. Bennington & I. McLeod (Trans.), The truth in painting (pp. 37–82). University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1978)

Dovey, K. (1999). Framing places: Mediating power in built form. Routledge.

Duro, P. (2019). What is a parergon? The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 77(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12619

Emmett, C. F. (2009). The siting of churches and mosques as an indicator of Christian–Muslim relations. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 20(4), 451–476. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410903194902

Fawaid, A., Zamroni, Z., & Baharun, H. (2019). Contesting sacred architecture: Politics of ‘Nation-State’ in the battles of mosques in Java. QIJIS: Qudus International Journal of Islamic Studies, 7(1), 129—172. https://doi.org/10.21043/qijis.v7i1.4365

Gombrich, E. H. (1956). Art and Illusion: A study in the psychology of pictorial representation (11th ed.). Princeton University Press

Grabar, O. (1987). The formation of Islamic art. Yale University Press.

Hadjiyanni, T. (2018). Interiors as global constructs: Framing culture and design discourses in a world of movement. In G. Marinic (Ed.), The interior architecture theory reader (pp. 397–406). Routledge.

Harris, D., & Ruggles, D. F. (Eds.). (2007). Landscape and vision. In Sites unseen: Landscape and vision (pp. 5–30). University of Pittsburgh Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7zw9w9.5

Holod, R., & Khan, H.-U. (1997). The mosque and the modern world: Architects, patrons and designs since the 1950s. Thames and Hudson.

Idham, N. C. (2021). Javanese Islamic architecture: Adoption and adaptation of Javanese and Hindu-Buddhist cultures in Indonesia. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 45(1), 9–18. https://doi.org/10.3846/jau.2021.13709

Khan, H.-U. (1990). The architecture of the mosque, an overview and design directions. In H. Salam-Liebich (Ed.), Expressions of Islam in buildings (pp. 109–127). Concept Media/Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

Kurniawan, K. R., & Kusumawardhani, R. A. (2012). The influence of 19th century Dutch Colonial Orientalism in spreading Kubah (Islamic dome) and Middle-Eastern architectural styles for mosques in Sumatra. Journal of Design and Built Environment, 11(1), 1–13. https://ejournal.um.edu.my/index.php/jdbe/article/view/5330

Kusno, A. (2000). Behind the postcolonial: Architecture, urban space and political cultures in Indonesia. Routledge.

Kusno, A. (2003). “The reality of one-which-is-two”—Mosque battles and other stories: Notes on architecture, religion, and politics in the Javanese world. Journal of Architectural Education, 57(1), 57–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/104648803322336593

McCarthy, C. (2005). Toward a definition of interiority. Space and Culture, 8(2), 112–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331205275020

McGregor, K. E. (2003). Representing the Indonesian past: The National Monument History Museum from Guided Democracy to the New Order. Indonesia, 75, 91–122. Cornell University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3351309

Mirzoeff, N. (2023). An introduction to visual culture (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Musnahterinjak. (2016). Istiqlal Mosque and Kemayoran [Photograph]. Panoramio. https://web.archive.org/web/20161020022409/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/64637421

O’Neill, H. (1994). South-East Asia. In M. Frishman & H.-U. Khan (Eds.), The mosque: History, architectural development & regional diversity (pp. 225–239). Thames & Hudson.

Pijper, G. F. (1947). The minaret in Java. In J. P. Vogel & F. D. K. Bosch (Eds.), India Antiqua: A volume of oriental studies presented by his friends and pupils to Jean Philippe Vogel on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate (pp. 274–283). E. J. Brill.

Poot, T., De Vos, E., & Van Acker, M. (2018). Thinking beyond dualities in public space: The unfolding of urban interiority as a set of interdisciplinary lenses. Interiors, 9(3), 324–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/20419112.2019.1622235

Ramayoni. (2019). Monumen Nasional dilihat dari salah satu gedung di Jakarta [National Monument as seen from one of the buildings in Jakarta] [Photograph]. Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Monumen_Nasional%2C_Jakarta%2C_Indonesia.jpg/1920px-Monumen_Nasional%2C_Jakarta%2C_Indonesia.jpg?20190210090800

Ruggles, D. F. (1997). Humayun's tomb and garden: Typologies and visual order. In A. Petruccioli (Ed.), Gardens in the time of the great Muslim empires: Theory and design (pp. 173–186). E. J. Brill.

Salam, S. (1990). Masjid Istiqlal: Sebuah monumen kemerdekaan [Istiqlal Mosque: A monument of independence]. Pusat Studi dan Penelitian Islam.

Salim, W., & Kombaitan, B. (2009). Jakarta: The rise and challenge of a capital. City, 13(1), 120–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604810902726335

Sarram, A., Utaberta, N., & Asif, N. (2019). Mosque in compact cities: Impact of urbanization on planning and design of contemporary mosques in Nusantara. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 8(1.9), 598–601.

Setiadi, H. (2015). Islam and urbanism in Indonesia: The mosque as urban identity in Javanese cities. In S. D. Brunn (Ed.), The changing world religion map: Sacred places, identities, practices and politics (pp. 2415–2436). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9376-6_127

Sontag, S. (1977). On photography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Sopandi, S. (2009). Indonesian architectural culture during Guided Democracy (1959–1965): Sukarno and the works of Friedrich Silaban. In T. Vu & W. Wongsurawat (Eds.), Dynamics of the Cold War in Asia: Ideology, identity, and culture (pp. 53–72). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230101999_4

Sunoto, S. (2017). Lingga Yoni jejak peradaban masyarakat (Jawa, Bali) dari perspektif positivistic [Lingga Yoni traces of Javanese and Balinese civilisation from positivism perspective]. Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya, 45(2), 155–169. http://dx.doi.org/10.17977/um015v45i22017p155

Tafliha, I. N. (2020). Landscape evaluation of mosque garden based on the concept of Islam. Journal of Islamic Architecture, 6(2), 112–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.18860/jia.v6i2.8028

Tagg, J. (1995). A discourse (with shape of reason missing). In S. Melville & B. Readings (Eds.), Vision and textuality (pp. 90–114). Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24065-4_5

Tajudeen, I. (2017). Trade, politics, and Sufi synthesis in the formation of Southeast Asian Islamic architecture. In F. B. Flood & G. Necipoğlu (Eds.), A companion to Islamic art and architecture (pp. 996–1022). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119069218.ch38

Wiryomartono, A. B. P. (1995). Seni bangunan dan seni binakota di Indonesia [The art of building and urban design in Indonesia]. Gramedia Pustaka Utama.

Wiryomartono, B. (2009). Postcard from the field: A historical view of mosque architecture in Indonesia. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 10(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/14442210902758715