“You don’t need to be a superhero to save the world. Do nothing.”
The message was delivered by one of the posters on display at the ongoing “International Poster Exhibition” at Bentara Budaya Yogyakarta.
The exhibition room, with posters either placed on walls or hung onto the ceiling, was dark, with light coming only from burning candles and a projector aimed at a wall.
“We deliberately arranged the room this way to suit the exhibition’s theme, the World Silent Day,” said Andhika, moderator of a discussion which followed up the exhibition’s opening on Tuesday evening.
The exhibition, which runs until Jan. 18, opened with a Javanese style cocktail party or wedangan where various kinds of traditional beverages and snacks were served in angkringan carts.
Jointly initiated and organized by the Association of Indonesian Graphic Designers (Adgi) and Bali Creative Community (BCC), the exhibition aims to help campaigning for the World Silent Day and invite more people to join observing the day every March 21.
The Yogyakarta exhibition is part of a series of traveling exhibitions initiated during the Kuala Lumpur Design Week on May 2010.
Adgi chairman Arief “Ayip” Budiman said 26 graphic designers from Asia had joined the project so far, presenting 30 poster works. Apart from Indonesia other participating countries include China, India, Malaysia and Thailand.
“We expect more to join in,” said Ayip.
After Yogyakarta, the project will travel to Bandung, West Java, and then to Surabaya, East Java.
He said the posters would also be exhibited at the Beijing Design Festival scheduled to be held on Nov. 4, 2011. Previously, the posters were displayed at the Bangkok Design Festival in Nov. 2010, Bali Creative Festival in Denpasar and Epiwalk Creative Fairground in Jakarta in December 2010.
“We have also received an invitation from the US but we don’t have the budget for the transportation expenses,” Ayip said.
Chairman of Adgi’s Yogyakarta chapter, M. Iqbal, said the exhibition at Bentara Budaya showcased 27 posters, including two by Yogyakarta designers.
Ayip said the poster exhibition was a form of the designers’ participation in saving the Earth through calling for the need to save energy, reducing carbon emissions and avoiding activities that harmed the environment.
“Through the exhibition, we want to create unity through culture as well as showing our participation in the global world.”
The Earth, he said, was a victim of uncontrolled, irresponsible human activities, resulting in climate change and global warming whose impact posed a threat to the people and the place they lived in.
The World Silent Day campaign was inspired by Balinese Hindus’ Nyepi ritual, or the Day of Silence. A nonprofit community, the Bali Collaboration on Climate Change, proposed World Silent Day in 2007 before participants of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali.
Observed every March 21, the World Silent Day is a moral movement calling on people to save the world by saving energy and reducing gas emissions in their daily life.
“We don’t call people across the world to observe World Silent Day for a straight 24 hours, but only for four hours,” said Ayip, who is also of the Bali-based Matamera Communications, one of the co-founders of Bali Collaboration.
World Silent Day aims to make people aware of the importance of reducing energy use to help save the world through simple actions — like doing nothing at all.
Ayip said everyone can contribute to save the world, such as by using less water, read books, plant trees, ride bicycles or even do nothing.
Just like one of the posters says, “This poster cannot save the Earth. But you can”.
