S

ome may underestimate street art and consider it more like a product of vandalism.

For the artists, however, it is a form of artistic expression regardless of what people say.

One local street artist, Lukas, aka Folker, said that even though he often played cat and mouse with officials from the Public Order Agency, he would continue expressing himself through art on the street. “Street artists will never be considered legal,” he said as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com recently.

In an attempt to bring street art to a wider audience, Inhype Group organized the Jakarta Street Art Festival exhibition in Lippo Mall Puri, West Jakarta, which opened on Dec. 7 and is set to run through Jan. 6.

“Usually we can only see street art from our car windows. Now we can see it here in the comfort of a mall without having to expose ourselves to the heat and dust of the street,” said Brenda Sucipto, PR officer of Inhype Group.

The festival showcases art pieces from globally known street artists, namely anonymous street artist Banksy from the United Kingdom; founder of OBEY clothing Shepard Fairy from the United States; Australia’s Bret Polok and Kyle Hughes-Odgers, and France’s Invader.

“We work with agents to display the original works of these famous street artists. We also sell replicas of the works as souvenirs for visitors,” Brenda said. “Besides them, we also display works from local artists such as Folker, Mongkiboy, Xenicosh, Cloze, Twomyskeleton, Clarave, HHH, Marzakh and AST.”

Realizing that street art may not appeal to all, the organizer combined it with a series of interactive installations named the Museum Playground, where visitors can take selfies.

“We display the Museum Playground, where people can take cute selfies, as bait so that people can come and enjoy a different kind of art. That’s also why we put it in the mall, where most Jakartans spend their free time with family,” Brenda said.

“We have 10 spots where visitors can take photos and make cute content here,” she added.

The Museum Playground has a supermarket and food theme. Besides an instant noodle-inspired installation, the exhibition also has a bathtub of colorful cereal where visitors can take pictures while soaking in it, piles of giant sardine cans, and a giant supermarket receipt.

Brenda said the joint concept was needed to lure people to go inside and experience street art.

Two best friends, Yessi and Kristin, both 26 years old, took turns taking pictures in front of a giant cup noodle installation.

“The noodle is so funny, it is ‘Rasa Pacar Special’ or ‘Special Boyfriend Flavor’, instead of the regular ‘Special Chicken Flavor’,” Yessi told The Jakarta Post.

Yessi said she and Kristin were just spending a regular weekend strolling around the mall when they found out that something new with a curious concept had opened on the first floor of the mall.

“It turned out we could take a lot of selfies here, and the concept is quite cool,” Kristin said.

Jakarta Street Art Festival is open according to the mall operational hours, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Entrance to the exhibition costs Rp 50,000 (US$3.44) for adults and Rp 25,000 for children. After enjoying the exhibition, visitors will be served with a selection of milk coffee or milk tea at a pop-up cafe just outside the exhibition gate.

Brenda said the exhibition had seen around 100 visitors in the morning of their first day, which consisted of families with kids and groups of friends who like to take selfies. “We target 500 visitors per day,” she said.