For its debut, the Jakarta International Photo Festival (JIPFest) features three curators with deep experiences in photography festivals. Collectively, they will curate all photo submissions under the festival’s theme—Identity.
Firman Ichsan takes the Head Curator seat. He is the founder of Oktagon Visual Education & Culture Development Foundation, and was the Chairman of the Jakarta Arts Council (2009-2012) and the Executive Director of Jakarta Biennale 2009.
Partnering with Firman is Jenny Smets, an independent curator from the Netherlands. She is Director of Photography at Vrij Nederland magazine and Project Advisor of World Press Photo. Jenny also teaches at the KABK art school in The Hague, Holland.
The third curator is Ahmad ‘Deny’ Salman, who teaches photography in various organizations, including the Permata Photojournalist Grant and the Kinabalu Photo Festival. He was the curator of Mamuk Ismuntoro solo exhibition and the Germany, Japan & Indonesia PhotoBooks exhibition.
In addition to the three curators, JIPFest has a number of selected guest curators produced by the Curators Lab training program—an initiative that aims to generate more curators in Indonesia. Under the supervision of the curatorial team, these guest curators curate all submitted works for the Exhibitions and Projection Nights programs.
