Mobile real estate agency pops up at art museum

Installation view of "On the Way to Investment," a collaboration between Indonesia's Jatiwangi Art Factory and Korea's Budnamugage, at the 2020 MMCA Asia Project "Looking for Another Family" exhibition / Courtesy of MMCA

By Kwon Mee-yoo

"Looking for Another Family," the 2020 Asia Project of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), provides diverse perspectives on changes in the concept of family with artists from eight Asian countries.

One of the most playful works at the exhibit is "On the Way to Investment," a collaboration between Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF) from Indonesia and Budnamugage from Korea, which invites viewers to make an investment to buy land in Indonesia. Those who invest in this project will receive a land certificate and plant lettuce and Moringa in the museum's courtyard.

Jatiwangi is a district in West Java, Indonesia, and the JaF focuses on discourses of local rural life through art. Jatiwangi began as a clay civilization and became the largest roof-tile-producing region of Southeast Asia.

"With the same clay, JaF uses it to encourage people to have a collective awareness of identity for its region through arts and cultural activities. The JaF tried to cultivate clay with more dignity, to raise the collective happiness through an event involving the enthusiasm of thousands of people," Arie of JaF told The Korea Times in an email interview.

"On the Way to Investment" is part of the JaF's ongoing "Hit & Run" movement in Jatiwangi.

"This project is experimenting with some kind of gift economy idea; how a disadvantage can be meaningful as an investment in this crisis situation, and as the way to make a family with this movement," Arie said.

"Hit & Run" movement was devised as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Jatiwangi and the government system that was ill-prepared for the crisis. JaF joined hands with motorcycle gangs to distribute personal protective equipment to medical facilities and workers as well as food and health supplements to the people in self-quarantine in the region.

"Hit & Run movement runs by open source, both finance and material. We offer our land in Jatiwangi to Korean people and everyone who is interested, also as an open source way to run Hit & Run movement," Arie explained. "Then the people who invest in it become our family that freely can come and stay in Jatiwangi whenever they want. It is for real, not only written in the family land certificate that we displayed in the exhibition."

Lettuce and moringa growing in the MMCA's courtyard as part of "On the Way to Investment." Courtesy of MMCA

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JaF and Budnamugage found strong connections between Seoul's Gaemi Village, an aging slum formed as a post-war refugee settlement, and the inhabitants of Jatiwangi in Indonesia and tried to raise awareness on the identities of both regions.

"Several Korean multinational corporations made investment and built big factories in Jatiwangi, but we never know and meet with that investor directly. This is not nice and makes a big gap between locals as a host and the investors as a guest," Arie said. "With this opportunity to take part in an exhibition at MMCA, we want to invite Korean people to invest in Jatiwangi in the relational as a family first, even though later become any other investment and business."

Arie said the most important part of this artwork is that people can feel, touch and communicate through it.

Unfortunately, the fates of the highly anticipated Lettuce Festival and Moringa Mysteria Workshop, scheduled for July 4, depend on the COVID-19 situation.

"The moringa and cabbage they grow in MMCA later can be harvested and used for somebody else who needs," Arie said.

Jatiwangi Art Factory prepares meals for delivery to residents as an investment in this crisis situation in their "Hit & Run" movement. Courtesy of the artist and MMCA

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, JaF could not visit MMCA in person, but had to communicate via phone and internet.

"It is the first time for us to make an artwork by long-distance relationship ― ready or not we have to deal with it. The good thing in this situation is that we can learn to manage the communication between the distance of time and space and slowly became more well-prepared. In the future we will have several projects with other institutions and schools in- and outside Indonesia and maybe we can't go there," Arie said.

The trickiest part turning their activity into artwork was in communication.

"It was interesting, because of time and space distance between Jatiwangi and Seoul. But luckily we made a collaboration with the very patient, warmhearted and talented people of Budnamugage and it helped a lot," Arie added.

The international exhibition held its opening ceremony online as the artists could not travel.

"It was a bit weird and surprising at the same time, because it was the first time for me to watch the opening of an exhibition online. But the curatorial and artistic team was very great and I really appreciate it," Arie said. "The decision to open the exhibition in this crisis is a big thing too."

JaF plans to keep broadening their "Hit & Run" movement.

"After Hit & Run Investment, we will make Hit & Run Rapid Test in Jatiwangi," Arie said. "And we will continue to make some noise."