Capture the Story: Culture City of Surakarta

Art, Memory & Urban Cultural Repair

Project Type

International Open Call Exhibition / Community-Based Cultural Exchange

Time & Location

27–28 September 2025

Surakarta (Solo), Central Java, Indonesia

Solo is Solo Street & Solo Art Market (SAM)

Organiser

Escape Arts Club Solo

Co-organisers

Krakra

Solo is Solo

Role

Program Leader & Initiator

Cai Boxuan (Boosen Tsai)

Background

Capture the Story: Culture City of Surakarta marks Escape Arts Club’s first long-term engagement in Indonesia. The project emerged from an overseas learning programme in Surakarta, a city widely recognised as a cultural heart of Java, where traditional court culture, gamelan music, batik, dance, and contemporary street art coexist within everyday urban life.

Contrary to the expectation of Surakarta as a city dominated by tradition, the project was initially inspired by the strong presence of street murals and graffiti across the city. Through local collaboration, it became evident that these visual expressions were part of long-term community-driven initiatives, such as Solo is Solo, which use art as a non-confrontational force to address social fragmentation and historical trauma, including memories of violence in the late 1990s.

The project positions art not as decoration, but as a medium for memory, dialogue, and urban self-repair.

Description

Developed through cross-border collaboration between Indonesia, Singapore, and China, Capture the Story invited artists, creators, and cultural observers to respond to Surakarta through storytelling-based works. An open call was launched internationally, welcoming submissions across photography, video, painting, music, film, digital art, and writing, with a shared emphasis on narrative and lived experience.

Originally conceived as a project foregrounding contemporary urban expression such as graffiti, the programme later adapted in response to renewed social unrest in Indonesia. In this context, the curatorial focus shifted toward traditional culture and intercultural dialogue, reaffirming Escape Arts Club’s core ethos: bringing the world in, and sharing culture out.

Selected works from Indonesia, Singapore, and China were exhibited within the same urban setting, enabling Surakarta to be viewed through global perspectives while simultaneously engaging with the outside world. An international jury from Shanghai, Singapore, and Indonesia participated in artist reviews and public sharing sessions, positioning the exhibition as an act of cultural continuity amid instability.

Outcomes

Two-day public exhibition integrated into major local cultural events
International open call with submissions across multiple artistic media
Participation from artists in Indonesia, Singapore, and China
Artist sharing sessions and live jury feedback
Established Escape Arts Club Solo as a platform for long-term cultural exchange

Keywords

Community-Based Art · Urban Memory · Cultural Repair · International Exchange · Storytelling · Street Art & Tradition · Southeast Asia · Public Exhibition