A Matter of Generations

Jipfest festival this year takes over a former shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, with exhibitions focused on the theme “Generation”.

Cover Photo by Ranita Roy

Selecting projects out of 231 submissions and coming from 37 countries, Indonesian and international curators divided the topic in sub themes often intertwined: Belonging, Future, Disruption, and (Dis)unity. The artists often explored personal stories and their own surroundings in Indonesia and abroad, raising issues related to the environment, human rights, recent history and the near future.

Jakarta is filled with malls and lacks spaces for the arts, so the choice to use a mall in Block M, a district full of youth and nightlife, to create a series of suprising and moving installations, means asking for more and encouraging others to do so. In the space, the memories and secrets of family stories blend with the ones linked to collective trauma, youth culture is re-examined generations apart, and cultural displacement poses the issue of belonging.

The exhibitions of Jipfe st will be on view in Jakarta, Indonesia, until September 24.