100 Years and Soledad
Last October 13, Salim, an Indonesian painter who spent most of his life in Europe, died at the age of 100 in Paris. A lot certainly can be said about a man a hundred years old, living in an age spanning from before World War II to the Iraq War makes him a “historical witness.” He was 16 when he left for Europe in 1924. Since then he had four times returned home to Indonesia. His encounters with the founding fathers of this country and his explorative works of art enriched him. Tempo visited and talked with Salim at his apartment in the Neuilly area in the French capital of Paris only weeks before his death. Following is a report on Tempo’s encounter with the painter who was better known in Europe than in his own country, and his pet turtle Soledad.
November 25, 2008
“I have let the birds go,” said the old man. “What I have left is only Soledad.”
THE old man, Salim, was already in the twilight of his years. Shaking terribly, his wrinkled index finger pointed to a dark-red washbasin filled with moss-covered stones close to the window. Soledad the turtle seemed to understand his master, raising its black yellow-striped head out of the water nodding repeatedly.
Soledad—Spanish for solitariness—was
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