After talking with George Clark two weeks ago, I had a chance to make a quick call with one of the artists who are part of the Jatiwangi Art Factory (JAF)’s ecosystem or family; Ismal Muntaha.
According to his blog, he described himself as a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works and lives as a ‘warga’ in Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF). In 2009 together with Sunday Screen he initiated the Village Video Festival, an annual residency-based video festival in Jatiwangi. His compassion with collective art led him to many initiatives such as Land Study Agency (BKP) in 2017. A temporary institution that focuses on the study of land and all cultural landscapes contained in it, through various artistic projects.
His background heavily rooted in arts and development studies, there is no wonder it leads him to be part of the JAF to making art not just as an outcome but also way of life.
On 18 July 2025, I got a chance to to online meeting with him and here’s our discussion:
Q: Hi, Ismal. Finally I got a chance to talk to you, after I had a discussion with George a couple weeks ago, finally I did! How are you?
A: Wow, you met George? Wonderful! I am great thank you!
Q: There are few questions that might going to be very generic and some questions that are based on what you are and why you do it in JAF. But let’s start with your role in JAF
A: I am an artist who is also part of the family and citizen (warga) of JAF and also in Jatiwangi. We can’t really say it is a collective or organization. Because our founder, Kang Arief, made us feel included and building this ecosystem as a community. Therefore, I feel like this is more like a family to us.
Q: I am curious about the vision and the dream in building JAF?
A: Oh my god, well, I guess the dream is to be granted with heaven (he laughed), or entering heaven in the after life, all of us. Because when we talk about sustainability, it is beyond the realm of worldly life. We build relation and connection between other being in the world. We are part of the cosmic, I think it is should be a relevant vision why we build JAF.
Q: When building these huge dreams, how do JAF able to invite and collaborate with people in Jatiwangi to be part of the ecosystem?
A: Well, because we are also the citizen of Jatiwangi, so does Kang Arief as the founder, we are able to invite and collaborate with people in Jatiwangi to be part of JAF ecosystem by making ourselves not a “people from outside society” but rather “society itself”. We hung out, talk and build relation so we can deeply engaged with the people.
The reason why we are existing is to gather the collective imagination of the citizens as the capital to make the area thrives. Imagination is being used as collective idea to improve Jatiwangi, from there, we want to create the land that we want to have. Also we want to build strong relation with our capital, the people and the land.
Tile Factory in Jatiwangi (Source: Google)
Q: I can see that collective imagination plays an important role in JAF, what was the trigger why collectivity plays an important part in building resilience community?
A: The land is changing every time, especially when industrialisation happened and Jatiwangi is now being surrounded by many factories in the last 5 years. Jatiwangi, well, was also known as tiles producers or factories. But now is developing as industrial areas from multinational to local brands.
We began to lose our belonging to our land. That’s one of the mission amidst these rapid urbanization and industrialisation in our area. We would like to reclaim our sense of belonging to the land. So, soil and land is our biggest concern right now.
Q: Do you think there is also a chance amidst industrialisation for the people, or maybe JAF itself, to work and collaborate with these growing industries in Jatiwangi?
A: It can be, however, there is also significant impact on ecology and economy. There are emerging problems like congestion and pedestrian issues because a lot of people are working in the factories that harms the environment. But on the economy side, the existence of new factories make people imagine the economic sustainability. It is, however, really beneficial during this uncertain times.
Yes, economic imagination can be strengthened. But the downside can be very inevitable. That is why we want to cultivating imagination from the people to be able to reclaim our culture, our land.
Q: How Imagination plays an important role in JAF?
In JAF, we called it imagining our culture on the land that is connected with many things. Because our relation can be transactional, including to our soil or our land, therefore we are not only seeing lands as a foundation of property or means of capital.
We celebrate our land by using it into many cultural forms, a festival, soil based products, skincare and so many things. So it is not only an area, but material and culture for our living. Distinct from purely financial or economic capital. It is portrayed as a powerful resource that can drive action and create movement
Q: How can we have collective imagination among the citizen to build a build the same mission?
It comes from our action practice to empower people without concrete ideas framework first by initiating “practices of doing and making”. Our approach emphasizes that the collective movement was “born from practices of doing and making”, meaning they simply started “making things” (bikin-bikin dulu) with people and ideas and collaborations formed organically from these actions. In JAF, we deliberately avoids starting with conceptual ideas, as they believe this would create a “gap” or distance with the community, unlike the typical NGO approach that uses frameworks and templates. In fact, our initial rule was “no thinking, just make, make, make”.
To cultivate collaboration, JAF acts as “good hosts”, inviting diverse individuals like designers to Jatiwangi. These “various encounters” and meetings then generate different “doing and making” practices that gradually “crystallize into an imagination” and are seen as important for “triggering initiative”
One of the evidences are how we created body builder festival with our tiles factory workers. This trigger is actually made to make people becomes more confident in their own land.
Factory Worker Body Builder Festival (Source: Google)
Q: How do you invite artists or collaborator into JAF?
I think everyone can and are the artist. This is the JAF DNA, inviting everyone to be artists. We make our guests feel welcome with us as the hosts and invite them to collab with us as the artists.
Art, in JAF’s context, is not limited to traditional forms like painting but is broadened to encompass the formation of new relationships and the creation of “public relations” (relasi-relasi publik) within daily life.
Q: Lastly, is the existence of JAF has significant tangible effect on local confidence?
Yes, our community-led initiatives, such as the “Talawengkar” brand developed by former roof tile bodybuilders and the “Motherbank” initiative, provides concrete evidence of increased local confidence and agency. These projects demonstrate that residents can successfully create and manage their own ventures.
Ultimately, JAF’s activities cultivate a “sense of pride in Jatiwangi” among its residents. This pride allows them to imagine about the region they inhabit. In essence, JAF’s approach to building local confidence is like tending a community garden: instead of simply handing out seeds (ideas), they work alongside the residents, tilling the soil (daily life), planting diverse crops (various projects and practices), and nurturing them together until the community can proudly harvest their own unique produce (collective imagination and self-sufficiency).
The discussion with Ismal connects bridge the gap and new knowledge regarding collective imaginations among people. The collective imaginations, if it is being taken action will make a change towards the citizens. Which proven by the existence of JAF as the pride of Jatiwangi.
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