Jakarta Vandalism Invades Bali In An Upcoming Photo Exhibition

An anonymous Jakarta graffiti crew will open up their photography archive to the public next month. A collection of images from almost half a decade of bombing walls in Jakarta will be on display at an exhibition entitled Chaos of Capital at Tantrà creative space in Denpasar, Bali.

The photos are mostly scenes from gritty nights they've spent traversing Jakarta's precarious streets to find walls to tag. The exhibition aims to showcase the raw vision of street life in Indonesia's capitol through the eyes of graffiti artists. A sharp contrast from the mall centric and sterilized version of Jakarta most people see from the confines of their cars.

Two photographers who are part of the project, Gnoberio and Peter Chev, said the idea for the show came to them while they were out tagging the city. They wanted to share a version of Jakarta people rarely see.

According to them, street art, like wall tags and graffiti, have no place in an art gallery, as a canvas on a white wall is not a justifiable medium to promote their brand of art. For them, the values of vandalism lie not in the art at all, it's more closely tied to actually going out, exploring, taking risks to transform property and promote a different worldview in the city.

They have over a thousand photographs, mostly captured on film, but only a handful will be shown to the public. They chose Bali because they think of it as their way of disrupting the island paradise, they want to spread the rough edge of city life and living on the streets to the island of the gods.

"I guess everyone is too busy in Jakarta these days," said Gnoberio. "No one is looking for this kind of stuff anymore."

Chaos of Capital is will open at Tantrà Creative Space on April 8th 2017.