UK/ID Festival 2016 Unites Creative Youth From UK and Indonesia
Bandung. The UK/ID Festival 2016, inaugurated on Tuesday (18/10), aims to bring together the youth of Indonesia and the United Kingdom to unleash their potential in the creative economy.
"The UK and Indonesia have so much potential to work together for mutual benefit, one of them is in creative industry. It's a key sector for both countries' economic growth," British Ambassador Moazzam Malik said during a press conference at NuArt Gallery and Sculpture Park in Bandung, West Java.
The festival is held in eight cities across Indonesia — Bandung, Surabaya (East Java), Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Ubud (Bali), Solo (Central Java), Medan (North Sumatra) and Padang (West Sumatra) — until Dec. 10, as part of the three-year UK/Indonesia 2016-18 program, which was launched by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo during his visit to the United Kingdom in April this year.
The event, organized by the British Council in Indonesia, is also an implementation of the memorandum of understanding on the creative economy between the Indonesian Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) and the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
With 36 organizations from Indonesia and 26 from the United Kingdom, the festival is focused on collaboration between the youth of different cultural backgrounds.
"The UK/ID Festival will build new relationships between artists, producers, curators, and arts organizations in the UK and Indonesia," British Council country director Paul Smith said.
The festival's main theme is the creative possibilities of new technologies.
Robbie Thomson, a young artist from Glasgow, kicked off the festival with his performance "XFRMR" (pronounced as "transformer") that uses the audio capabilities of an electrical resonant transformer circuit, or Tesla coil.
The opening party also featured "Gerobak Bioskop: Layar Inspirasi" ("Cinema Carts: Screen of Inspiration") — mobile movie carts screening new British shorts.
Other events scheduled for the festival include a dance performance by the James Cousins Company, inspired by William Shakespeare's "As You Like It," a presentation by Scottish poetry collective Neu! Reekie!, a performance by DJ Goldierocks, a concert by British J-pop band Kero Kero Bonito, a puppet show by Tim Spooner, an exhibition by up-and-coming ceramic artists Joseph Hopkins and Nao Matsunaga, and virtual reality films that tell stories of disability.
The festival will reach its peak during Digital Design Weekend in Kota Tua, West Jakarta, on Nov. 19-20.
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