Sukarno’s dedication to the arts and obsession with creating a nationalist ideal live on in luxury hotels he built in the 1960s
Mark Woodward
Originally known as the Ambarrukmo Palace or Kedhaton Ambarrukmo, the Ambarrukmo Hotel in Yogyakarta is one of four international standard hotels Sukarno ordered to be constructed in the 1960s. The others are Hotel Indonesia in Jakarta, The Bali Beach Inter-Continental in Sanur and the Samudra Beach Hotel in Pelabuhan Ratu. For Sukarno, building them was much more than a series of construction projects. It was a nationalist strategy focused on attracting international attention for the new nation. All four hotels house important examples of modern Indonesian art. Sukarno used art, architecture and monuments as revolutionary, ideological and diplomatic tools.
https://www.insideindonesia.org/archive/articles/sukarnos-indonesia-as-seen-from-yogyakarta?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
