Kuncen market: A contested site where the present and the past meet.

At Pasar Kuncen, the market is set back around 15 meters from Jl. Magelang, where the traffic passes in a hurried and noisy manner. In front, there is a large parking lot, which on this afternoon is largely occupied by motorbikes. There is a general lethargy that marks the way visitors and shop owners move around.

At the entrance, two maps present the layout. The emptiness of the maps belies the density and color of the stalls inside. Visitors stride directly to the lower or upper floors of Pasar Kuncen, bodies remembering how to get to their favorite shops on autopilot.

Business feels slow. Consumption and deciding what to buy also feel slow. Visitors consider a large variety of goods before realizing the use of something or if they need a particular object. The slowness is reflected in speed at which some objects are sold, while others make a quicker journey through this second hand and pirated goods market.

Stairs lead up to mobile phone vendors or down to a bazaar. It is more open below and the semi-outdoor space attracts most of the visitors. To the rear are stalls selling clothing of varying levels of datedness and fashion. That what is sold is '€œfake'€ is accepted.

Shoes are piled in neat and orderly racks: shiny colors, familiar brand-names. They were also easily recognized as counterfeit '€” or at least not what they claimed to be '€” due to imperfections and shabbiness. But they'€™re cheap.

At work: Business feels slow. Consumption and deciding what to buy also feel slow.
While the stalls are particularly empty on this afternoon, the clothes and shoes on offer are seemingly endless, speaking of the ease and speed of manufacture. Buying these products might be an easy way to look hip '€” like wearing the easily damaged but frequently updated offerings from H&M in Europe.

To the left there is a stall featuring statues made from disused money run by Pak Dani, who buys and sells old banknotes and coins. On offer is a Rp 1 note from 1964 with a portrait of Sukarno on it, along with more recently defunct currency from the Soeharto era.

Money evokes memories and history, with dirt from the hands of users ingrained in the paper'€™s texture. Changes in banknotes match the changes in political regimes: The new shiny notes of the post-1998 era represent a symbolic break with the New Order regime and its notorious corruption.

The used notes are cleaned and turned into sculptures. Thus money has another life, shifting from currency to something with aesthetic value, like Dani'€™s framed miniature money-mosques or birds with their rhythmic repetitions. Perhaps this is the work of a man who has money to play with and money to work with. Countless hours of waiting for customers leads to seeing money as the basic material for a mosque; seeing it as a part of a bird.

Dani says that he is an autodidact, and that his work is not origami. Customers ask him to make miniature mosques, ships or birds for weddings, inscribed with names and dates. The statues sell for around Rp 500,000 (US$43.5).

In motion: Objects move in both directions '€” their age, their degree of damage or utility are constantly re-valued by new owners.
Further down, there is a Raleigh bicycle parked near two stalls selling spare parts. Here are fragments of bicycles '€” fragments of history '€” ready to be reassembled and reused.

I speak with the owner of one stall selling gears, lights, seats, locks and peddles, telling him that I also have a Raleigh in The Netherlands and that the company has been sold the Chinese. He doesn'€™t understand why I'€™m telling him this nor does he care. He says the bicycle in front of his stall is from 1951 and is completely original, before mentioning five or six of his other bicycles. He recites their brands and their years of manufacture. After a while the names and the brands mean less and less. The man is an enthusiast. He operates his stall and reproduces his enthusiasm for vintage bicycles in
a modest manner.

Vintage is that which is historical and is still being used; retro is that which is new but which evokes the historical and that which has gone out of fashion, only to become fashionable again, for its very absence.

These bicycles of colonial Indonesia are increasingly popular: '€œHeritage'€ is reclaimed, colonial icons adopted as a part of authentic retro fashion. Sepeda onthel, as vintage Dutch bicycles are called, are ridden around the southern public square in Yogyakarta early on weekday mornings; there is a club that meets at the end of Jl. Malioboro on Saturday nights. Collectors form collectives.

In another corner, a slim man in a man camouflage cap sits selling pictures and jewelry. Pendants and various necklaces are hung in front of him, obscuring his presence. Framed photographs are behind him and on the sides of the stall. These are things that evoke the regalia, heritage and authority of the Yogyakarta sultanate.

Shoes: Easily recognized as counterfeit '€“ or at least not what they claimed to be '€“ due to imperfections and shabbiness. But they'€™re cheap.
In one small box are a host of photographs, mostly black and white and all slightly bigger than a passport photograph. The owner proudly points out a photograph with former president Soeharto doing his usual business, standing in the center of a group of suited officials. From his low stool behind the counter, the stall owner says he obtained the photographs from various studios in Yogyakarta that have closed down.

Many of the photographs are from the 1950s, although most don'€™t have names and dates. The owner says a lot of the subjects are orang dalam, from within the palace, members of Yogyakarta'€™s upper class or royalty to one degree or another. Many of the photographs were taken over meals during celebrations. There are wedding ceremonies, women in garden settings, portraits, profiles, a game of badminton and families posing in front of houses. The borders vary from round to soft to jagged, the finishes becoming increasingly matte. This man is collecting the aura of the kraton.

Kuncen market is a contested site where the present and the past meet. This is normal. Objects of the past '€” near and a little more distant '€” are sold for re-use. Objects move in both directions: their age, their degree of damage or utility constantly re-valued by new owners. Objects slowly become grimy and dirty as they wait to be appropriated by enthusiasts and connoisseurs.

Each stall holder persists with his or her collection; all connected by some more or less loose theme. This is trading on a small and slow scale. Sellers seem bored, disinterested and disappointed with the lack of interest in their goods.

When a sale is made there is an air of resignation at the small price that is paid for the goods. Sellers fall asleep amongst their goods or consume trashy television serials. Others drink with other sellers; the despondent stare into the distance.

Pieces: Here are fragments of bicycles '€” fragments of history '€” ready to be reassembled and reused.

'€” Photos by Andy Fuller