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aking advantage of a rare opportunity, artists are transforming Jakarta billboards from their traditional function as commercial advertisements to art that provokes viewers to think twice about their surroundings.

Instead of being bombarded by messages pushing them to spend money, people passing the now-historic first modern mall in Indonesia -Sarinah Department Store on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta - can see a billboard sporting an old photograph of a woman wearing the traditional kebaya and sarong and holding an umbrella. Artist Angki Purbandono used the anonymous portrait as an imagined image of former first president Sukarno's nanny, the inspiration behind the department store's name.

Commuters stuck in traffic along often-gridlocked Jl. Sultan Iskandar Muda can consider the meaning of another portrait of an elusive woman. Yan Mursid's stereogram is erected on a billboard at the pedestrian bridge in front of the Pondok Indah mosque.

The billboard art is part of the ongoing art festival ARENA: Jakarta Biennale 2009, Billboard project curator Irwan Ahmett said the idea was to bring art to public spaces.

"This is something new and has never been done before.

"The billboard phenomenon in Jakarta has reached an extraordinary level, especially with the election campaigns. They're everywhere and placed with no regard for the city's aesthetics. It's cluttered," Irwan said.

Billboard advertising can be seen in every corner of the capital. With the coming election, political parties and candidates have splashed billboards, banners, and posters on every roadway.

"We're manipulating this phenomenon by using the same medium to showcase site-specific art," Irwan said.

One artist, Ali Akbar, chose to work up a parody of commercial billboards to mock Jakartans' consumerism. His billboard, also in front of the Pondok Indah Mosque, informs people of an 80 percent discount at the opening of a fake fashion house dubbed Fakery London.

Ali carries the con one step further, using a fake Facebook account for the label. "The funny thing is, people on Facebook have been all eager about finding out about this label," he said.

Ali, an award-winning photographer, said that he was taking a critical look at deep consumerism in Jakarta. At first he wanted to put the mock billboard up on Jl. Asia Afrika, Senayan, South Jakarta, where the two malls Plaza Senayan and Senayan City face each other.

"We weren't able to secure a permit there," he said.

Four billboards went up Monday. Irwan said Cecil Mariani's billboard about the history behind Menteng Park was scheduled to go up soon in Menteng, Central Jakarta. Eric Wijaya's billboard will be up in mid February, replacing Angki's. Ritchie Ned Hansel's likewise goes up at the same time in Pondok Indah.

Some artists participating in the project said their inspiration came from the exact location where they knew their art would be displayed.

Angki, originally from Yogyakarta and residing there now, said the Sarinah locale pretty much summed up the Jakarta experience. He worked in the Sarinah building for two years for MTV Trax magazine. "It's like, after visiting Sarinah, you don't have to go anywhere else in Jakarta."

"You can find everything there: sidewalk vendors, department stores, restaurants and nightclubs," he said.

Angki has been collecting old photographs since 2006. The photograph he used is part of that collection. "I imagined Sarinah would have been a refined and elegant woman," he said.

Another artist, Ismiaji Cahyono, placed his billboard in Grogol, East Jakarta. Despite the hectic cluttered there, Aji said he liked the site for its strategic location.

Using his billboard he invited people to express their feelings about Grogol through sending a text message over their mobile phones.

His billboard has "Grogol: .." in big letters.