“Nowadays, those who works on art should understand technology so that we can improve further. In the past we didn’t expected that arts would have important role in this country. In the past, art was seen as wasting time and useless activity. At present, art has more than that thanks to tourism development along with art and culture activities done by society.  The last report stated that the tourism sector has already contributed 250 trillion Rupiah. Therefore, I made a new art innovation for this country and society” said Nyoman Nuarta in the General Stadium in Faculty of Languages and Arts UNY, Thursday (13/2).

Nyoman, who was born on Tabanan, November 14, 1951, said that in the early 1990s he proposed to build Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) statue in Bali. “The project was opposed by people, but that was okay because I am sure they still don’t understand the role of arts in our economic sector,” said Nyoman. According to Nyoman, the alumni of the Fine Arts study program Institute Teknologi Bandung (ITB), It took up to 30 years were needed to make GWK as good as now. Technology became an important thing because the GWK statue has 3000 tons and precise calculation from construction expert is needed to prevent any incident caused by an earthquake, storm or even lightning.

The Studium Generalein the theme of “Arts, Sciences, and Technology” was officially opened by the Rector of UNY, Sutrisna Wibawa by beating the gong and handing over souvenirs. In his speech, the Rector said that in this general stadium Nyoman Nuarta conveyed the technique of building GWK. Nyoman was an artist who combined art, science and technology.

According to Sri Harti Widyastuti, Chairperson of General Study Committee, this activity was attended by more than 800 people consists of undergraduate and postgraduate students of craft, music, dance and fine arts education as well as civil and informatics engineering study programs, lecturers and art observers from UNY and ISI and from public participants. "From this General Stadium, we hope that we can get the related knowledge enlightenment from Nyoman Nuarta as an artist and entrepreneur” concluded Sri Harti Widyastuti. (Dedy. Tj. Lalak)