Raise the Theme 'Garden of Earthly Delights', ARKIPEL 2024 Presents 4 Exciting Programs Open to the Public and Free!

Kapanlagi.com - ARKIPEL Garden of Earthly Delights - the 11th Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival 2024 will be held for about three weeks, specifically from August 14 to September 1, 2024. This event will take place at several locations.

The Garden of Earthly Delights exhibition will be held at the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics, Jakarta, from August 14 - 26. The Festival Forum will be held at the Japanese Studies Center, University of Indonesia, from August 22-23. Meanwhile, the screenings of competition and curatorial films will take place at the Forum Lenteng Cinema, South Jakarta, from August 24 to September 1, 2024.

ARKIPEL is initiated by Forum Lenteng to interpret global phenomena in the context of social, political, economic, and cultural issues through cinema. ARKIPEL 2024 raises the theme 'Garden of Earthly Delights'. This theme borrows the tentative title of the phenomenal and subversive work of the 15th-century Hieronymus Bosch, which presents vulgar visual codes and invites riddles.

An examination of local philosophy, Javanese as an example, which similarly presents management over the receptors of pleasure such as babahan hawa songo (nine holes of desire), is sharpened with the knowledge of katon (deep observation) and titen (prediction), then transcended, also finds its realization in the material world and its performativity in rituals, social events, and artifacts.

A wayang performance that lasts all night, for instance, combined with the sounds of natural musical instruments, ritualistic aromas, the presence of non-human agents, and food and drinks from local produce completes the sensory assault on the bodily experience of the audience. If the cinematic experience of wayang all night long is considered a mode of thinking, preceding Lumiere's Cinematograph apparatus, then it can encompass the active involvement of all human senses in the durational situation of its event.

1. Challenges Faced

ARKIPEL Garden of Earthly Delights Poster (Photo credit: Personal documentation)

In its eleventh edition, the challenge of ARKIPEL is no longer just navigating the discourse of the development of form and how global issues mutate within the aesthetic experimentation of documentary and experimental cinema. We have reached a point of reflection on how cinema, in this mature phase, can offer a meeting of filmmakers-works-audiences to unravel the deepest layers of multi-sensory stimuli (visual, auditory, taste and smell, haptic/touch, and others), and the memories that arise from it that are all interconnected with the reality of location, and inevitably political.

The embodied poetic knowledge of filmmakers holds a unique offer in viewing reality, both in its location and in the world. Therefore, ARKIPEL this year offers various modes of exhibition to explore the possibilities of multisensory and durational in exploring the language of cinema, global issues, and the possibilities of activism that arise from it.

The 2024 Film Festival consists of four main programs. Among them are the International Competition, Candrawala, Garden of Earthly Delights Exhibition, Festival Forum, Curatorial Program, and Special Screenings. In total, there will be 60 documentary and experimental films from 23 countries that will be screened. All events at ARKIPEL are free and open to the public.

2. A Series of Programs at the 11th Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival 2024

- International Competition
The International Competition program has selected 37 films from 15 countries as participants out of a total of over 800 registered films from 85 countries. The members of the International Competition Jury of ARKIPEL are Ali Aladawy (curator and researcher from Egypt), Phoebe Wong (archivist and cultural activist from Hong Kong), Afrian Purnama (critic and writer from Indonesia), Akbar Yumni (critic and cultural activist from Indonesia), and Hafiz Rancajale (artist and curator, also the founder of Forum Lenteng). The films will be divided into 10 screening slots.

- Candrawala
The Candrawala program is curated by Wahyu Budiman Dasta. Candrawala will showcase 5 Indonesian films by examining the latest visual phenomena from moving image production in the local context of Indonesia. It discusses how landscapes in cinema are no longer merely aspects for beautification but can also delve deeper into the context and situation of a location.

- Garden of Earthly Delights Exhibition
The Garden of Earthly Delights exhibition, curated by Hafiz Rancajale, will be held from August 14-26, 2024, at the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics, Old Town Jakarta. This exhibition collaborates with the provincial government of Jakarta and the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics. It will feature video works, films, sound art, and paintings by Indonesian and international artists, in response to the festival's theme. This exhibition aims to stimulate the senses and their relationship with the audio-visual medium. The artists involved include Sigisora (sound art collective, Jakarta), Muarasuara (sound art collective, Samarinda), Zbynek Baladran (Czech Republic), Nguyen Trinh-Thi (Vietnam), Jane Gillooly (USA), Felix Blume (Brazil), Aleksandr Isaienko (Ukraine), Suk-Jun Kim (South Korea), Sudjojono, Nashar, Rastika, and Soedibio.

- Curatorial Program
In this edition, there are 5 Curatorial Programs. First, Ali Aladawy will present films related to art and activism in Egypt. Second, Phoebe Wong will present films related to the history and culture of video art in East Asia. Third, Alifah Melisa in collaboration with Taiwan Docs will present experimental films from Taiwan in the 1960s. Fourth, Adi Osman in collaboration with the Sensory Ethnography Lab will screen the film De Humani Corporis Fabrica. Lastly, Prashasti Wilujeng Putri will present the film Xala by Ousmane Sembene.

- Special Presentation
The Special Presentation program will showcase cinematic works produced in the Milisifilem educational program initiated by the 7th batch of Forum Lenteng. This year's Festival Forum Program consists of 5 discussion panels held on August 22-23, 2024, in a hybrid format at the Japan Study Center, Universitas Indonesia. Keynote speech by Nindityo Adipurnomo; Panel 1. Sensing Our Senses; Panel 2. City Sensations; Panel 3. Sensible Movement; Panel 4. Hacking Media Technology with a Vernacular Approach; Panel 5. Multisensory Aesthetic.

- ARKIPEL 2024 Awards Night
The Opening Night of the ARKIPEL Festival will feature the announcement of the winners of the ARKIPEL Garden of Earthly Delights 2024 awards, held on September 1, 2024, at Forum Lenteng, South Jakarta. Happy festival and let's watch!

(kpl/gtr)