ICAD’s Earth Society: Where Collaboration Returns to Ground
On Thursday evening (9/10), Grafis Masa Kini had the pleasure of attending the opening of the Indonesian Contemporary Art & Design (ICAD) exhibition at grandkemang hotel. Surrounded by the many art goers and creatives of Jakarta, we shared in collective excitement for an event that has firmly established itself as one of the city’s most collaborative and forward-thinking platforms for contemporary art and design.
Now in its fifteenth year, ICAD carries the weight of expectation: the need to constantly adapt to the urgency of worldly affairs, the ever-accelerating rhythm of the ‘creative scene’, and to the collective ‘trends’ that piques the public’s interest. This year, ICAD rose to the challenge and adopted the theme “Earth Society”, presenting a space to reflect on our relationship to land and the delicate balance between care and destruction within the ecology we share.
As we entered the space, we were immediately struck by the range of materials that were draped across the hotel lobby. There was denim, textile, cardboard, porcelain on display, and each articulated the fragments of ruin embedded in the wear of our everyday. We walked deeper, and surprises revealed themselves in the most unsuspected corners: moving sculptures concealed in dark rooms, photobooks displayed as a shrine, banners and garments splattered across the space in quiet disarray. Conversations echoed between installations, while screens played looping footage of communities and contexts to inform the works on display.
And as we moved up to the second floor, the exhibition unfolded into the privacy of hotel rooms. Here, there is silk, fabric, sculptures that intertwine seamlessly with the architecture itself, and each room transformed into a site-specific dialogue between their respective materials and space.
There is a sense of democracy in its curation, which lends equal attention for each artist on display. The usual glitz and glamour that is typically packaged into the presentation of contemporary art are stripped away, allowing the exhibition to settle into something more subtle and humane, like solid ground. True to its curatorial theme, the rhythm of the space feels organic and even elemental, surrendering the viewer to move beyond the fixation towards spectacle.
In ICAD, we surrender to substance — to experience the work as living ecosystems of community and material. The pretence of aesthetics is broken and returned into the Earth, and what emerges are the stories of humanity itself.
This year, there are more than 50 participating artists that are divided into five categories: Special Appearance, In Focus, Featured, Collaborations, and Open Call. There are vast range of names that range from Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Professor Emeritus Imam Buchori Zainuddin, Yani Mariani Sastranegara, Ghea Panggabean, Wishulada Panthanuvong, Kreaby, Anang Saptoto, Riska Munawarah, Wisnu Ajitama, Gevi Noviyanti with Arka Kinari, Paul Gong, On Reciprocity Collective, Bukan Main Games & Ardini Azzah, and many more.
Beyond display, there will be a host of public programmes that range from Talk Shows, Workshops, Performance Art and Film Screening. Amongst the many, MOTE will be hosting a workshop called “Knowing Co-Existence”, where they will be inviting visitors to create their own petridish art.
Walking out of the exhibition, we were reminded that collaboration is not merely a method, but a way of being and perhaps one that demands a return into the Earth through humility, attentiveness, and reciprocity. ICAD’s “Earth Society” offers a glimpse of what that could look like: an art world grounded not in individual acclaim, but in collective reflection, remembrance, and renewal.
