The kinds of questions we were asking back here -- what do you build in a city, and why; and what do you preserve, and how? -- have been floating around quite insistently in recent days.

1.

There was a big ruckus recently over the disappearance of the very cute orangutan mural that featured on a wall opposite the market. (You can see it in this post.)

Painted by Lithuanian street artist Ernest Zacharevic in 2014, it was recently covered over by the word "Kuching", originally featuring -- allegedly -- a drinks can in lieu of the "I". This central image was subsequently covered up, and the whole thing now looks a real mess:


The Kuching South mayor, Dato Wee Hong Seng, has described himself as "enraged" by the whole affair: "Penang earns lots of tourist dollars from Zacharevic’s work -- we should capitalise on the priceless gifts from the artist to Kuching, yet we have thrown everything into Sungai Sarawak."

The owner of the wall in question "explained that the decision to lease out the wall was done in compliance with the law and with no ill intent, but to add beauty and to bring tourism value to this nostalgic part of the city... [He] expressed regret ... that its intention on re-beautification has been misunderstood as an act of vandalism... While noting that it would be nice to have another mural featured on the wall, [he] however explained that the huge cost involved was beyond what he could afford, and therefore decided to rent out the wall which was done legally."

All a bit sad.

2.

We went to a Sarawak Heritage Society talk at the Borneo Cultures Museum yesterday. Featuring Architect Lim Take Bane, it took as its topic "urban renewal through built heritage conservation".

It was interesting, focusing on issues ranging from the lessons to be learned from heritage buildings (low carbon footprints, for example) to the need to maintain and promote a "sense of place".

No easy answers, though. How do you viably preserve heritage buildings while avoiding the creation of tourist ghettos that inflate rents, squeeze out the original inhabitants, and undermine authenticity? How do you inspire people to set store by their community's old buildings, and lobby the government accordingly?


3.

While we were at the museum for the talk, we realized that we'd missed out last time on the double-trunk burial pole. These are amazing -- and fragile -- works of art...