The first edition of Jakarta International Photo Festival (JIPFest) was held on 25 June-9 July 2019 in 17 public spaces across Central Jakarta. Attended by more than 17,000 visitors, the festival debut was a notable celebration and one of the biggest photography events in Southeast Asia.
JIPFest 2019 featured 64 events under 13 program categories, including Fringe, Workshops, Urban Photo Tour, Public Lectures, Portfolio Review and Curators Lab. One of the programs, Photo Exhibition, is a product of a successful open call which saw 255 artists from 31 countries participating. The final selection featured 44 artists from 18 countries.
By proposing Identity as the main theme, JIPFest opened up a discussion to understand how social constructions shape who we are and how we (should) behave. Identity is also a theme strongly relevant for Indonesia as a developing nation. With more than 700 documented living languages and 300 ethnic groups, the world’s largest archipelago is one of the world’s capitals of diversity. In Indonesia, identity is a concept that remains in question. JIPFest is present to reflect, converse, argue on the question.
Most of JIPFest events were free and open to public, including Projection Nights, Artist Talks and Panel Discussions. JIPFest aims to cultivate the culture of knowledge exchange and constructive criticism with programs like Curators Lab, Workshops and Portfolio Reviews.
With a global vision, the first edition of JIPFest involved 70 experts in photography, media and arts, including Marina Vitaglione (Panos Pictures, London), Shahidul Alam (TIME Person of the Year 2018), Teun van der Heijden (photo book specialist), Veejay Villafranca (Manila-based photographer) and Zhuang Wubin (Singapore-based curator and writer).
JIPFest 2019 was supported by TIFA Foundation, World Press Photo, Cohive, Jakarta Provincial Government, Ministry of Education and Culture, Creative Economy Agency, AFP, Magnum Foundation, Fujifilm, Ekta Imaging, Aqua, Artotel Thamrin-Jakarta, Blibli.com, Rubanah, IFI, Tugu Kunstkring Paleis, KeKini, Sarinah, Upnormal Coffee Roaster, Jakarta Creative Hub, Galeri Indonesia Kaya, DestinAsian, DestinAsian Indonesia, Beritagar.id, Narasi and Kompas Daily.
