The project is called Arte Moris, meaning "living art" in Tetum, one of East Timor's two official langauages. German-Swiss artist couple Luca and Gabriela Gansser initiated the project in 2003, shortly after East Timor gained independence. The art center's works are on display throughout East Timor's capital Dili, and can be found painted on walls and in parks.

Visitors get their first glimpse of Arte Moris as they drive into town from the airport. It's a large complex, colorfully painted, with a wild garden full of curious objects.

There are also works in the former prison, which now houses the East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation. Paintings inside illustrate the tenets of the UN human rights charter - rights that were systematically violated in East Timor.

In a joint report last year, Indonesia acknowledged for the first time that its military had backed militias that ran riot in 1999 but rejected calls for an international tribunal.

Arte Moris's director is Iliwatu Danabere. The painter and sculptor says the center's aim is to heal trauma and anger by transforming it through artistic means.

"Many have sought to heal the traumatized mentality of violence through art, where all the anger and all the feeling will be expressed, but you don't damage anything."

Grappling with grim memories

The center's large domed building once served as an ethnological museum, and then as a hospital run by Australian peacekeeping troops.

When they arrived in 2002, Luca and Gabriela Gansser noticed the large amount of graffiti around the city. To them it was proof that many young people had no jobs and no prospects. Then, as now, forty percent of the population lived below the poverty line. The idea of a free art school was born.

First they financed paints and materials. Later, money began to flow from sponsors and the sale of artworks. Jose Ramos-Horta, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and current president of East Timor, became the center's patron. Today, it has 200 students. Twenty artists and students live on-site.

"At the beginning we had many pictures that were very grim and dark, that had a lot to do with rape; many were full of violence, because in every East Timorese family there are victims of those times," says Gabriela Gansser.

Theater as therapy

According to the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, during the 24 years of Indonesian occupation, some 200,000 Timorese, or one-fifth of the total population, died of violent causes.

Shortly after the Indonesian pull-out ten years ago, Jonathan York arrived in East Timor. He now heads the theater group Bibi Bulak, on the same site as Arte Moris. He remembers what it was like when he arrived with a troupe of international performers in a UN aircraft, back in 2000.

"The Timorese people were very excited to come to any sort of show. They had suffered under horrible conditions. It had been a long time since they have had an occasion to come together in public, in freedom, especially after dark, and experience something fun."

Theater in a Western sense had practically never existed in East Timor. The group Bibi Bulak moved in with Arte Moris in 2003 and began offering drama classes.

"We opened up a big call for anybody that wanted to come along and learn theater. I hired a teacher, an Indonesian guy, with experience in teaching. Most of the current senior members come from the group that signed up for those early classes."

Place of refuge

In a violent setback three years ago tensions between rival factions of eastern and western regions of East Timor erupted into severe unrest and arson attacks. Nearly 200 people died.

Some 160,000 fled their homes, including hundreds who sought refuge on the grounds of Arte Moris. For a time, the center served as a refugee camp. Director Iliwatu Danabere says all were welcome, on the condition that they remained peaceful.

"When they arrived here, I told them, if you have any problem between each other outside, please don't bring it here, because this place (belongs to) Timor. There is no East and no West."

Outside the temporary camp, rioters threw stones and shot poisoned arrows. Most foreigners left Dili, but not Gabriela Gansser.

"We didn't give them any pretext to assault us. Arte Moris was well known around the country and all knew that its members were non-violent. And, the message that we had been spreading since 2003 was to live together and try to understand one another, or rather, to communicate and try to solve problems."

The last refugees left the Arte Moris complex in July of 2008. The Ganssers are trying to slowly move into the background and gradually hand the management of Arte Moris over to the Timorese and Timorese artists.

Author: Matthias von Hein (ipj)
Editor: Carl Holm