Founded in 2005, Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF) is an artistic collective of multimedia artists, musicians, designers and curators working from a former roof-tile factory in Majalengka, Indonesia. JaF's artistic practice focuses on its local community, their relationship to the land, and the Jatiwangi district's terracotta industry.
Clay and community empowerment are therefore central to all of JaF's artistic and cultural activities. They work with media from visual arts to video to curate exhibitions, make radio broadcasts, launch educational programmes and workshops, hold festivals, and create music with a terracotta ensemble. Since 2005, JaF has also been working with the people of Jatiwangi to create a collective consciousness and identity for the region. The long-term project Kota Terrakota (Terracotta city) looks at tanah not only as a raw material, but also as land, as territory, and as a concept. In a series of artistic and cultural activities around this theme, JaF is engaging with local communities such as farmers, entrepreneurs and governments to bring about at a shared vision for the future of the area's terracotta industry. Their aim is to reshape Jatiwangi according to the wishes of the community, while preserving the cultural landscape and promoting a new clay culture.
The residency at JaF offers designers, architects and spatial practitioners the opportunity to conduct research, expand their network and develop new work with a focus on (the interrelationship between) the region's landscape, the communities surrounding JaF, and the locally available resources.