Kota Kita Nanti brings together local actors from the fields of art, design, environment, social sciences and technology to share their expertise in shaping current and future challenges. Over the course of three months, they built a network, shared their special skills and produced a publication with twelve perspectives for more s stainability and design in our daily lives. Each actor created an individual booklet, which will be continued by the readers. The design was created by POT Branding House in close cooperation with the actors. In the course of the process, the network grew and grew, and so we present Kota Kita Nanti with an exhibition, a workshop series and a publication in November and December 2021 at the Bandung Design Biennale 2021.
Kota Kita Nanti is a project of Goethe-Institut Bandung in collaboration with Keni Soeriaatmadja and Artati Sirman, Bandung Design Biennale and POT Branding House and twelve local actors: Arekha Bentangan, Emeraldi Paramaeswara, Febryan Tricahyo, Gadis Prameswari, Grace Sahertian, Mei Suling, Misha Ahmad Azizia, Ratna Ayu Budhiarti , Reyza Ramadhan, R. Yuki Agriardi, Tarlen Handayani, and Yanuar P.F.
CITY (Bandung) (is) we, (before, today, and) future
by Keni Soeriaatmadja and Artati Sirman
__Kota Kita Nanti (Our City Tomorrow) is born out of the desire to re-imagine the city of Bandung, this time through the lens of its residents and their diverse activities, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic that is fraught with uncertainty.
It is no secret that Bandung is home to numerous artists—musicians, painters, sculptors, literary authors, performance artists—as well as a plethora of scholars that have played a significant part in the national development, even before Indonesia’s independence. Is there something in the city’s water that makes Bandung such fertile ground for thinkers and creative minds? How is it possible that innovative ideas seem to flow freely in the city that is popular for its cool weather and tasty culinary dishes? What drives Bandung’s inhabitants and, more importantly, what knowledge should be shared so that the works of Bandung’s creative minds can best benefit communities beyond the city limits?
These were the initial questions that made us ponder and eventually come up with the book project that we, Keni Soeriaatmadja and Artati Sirman, co-initiated with Goethe-Institut Bandung. It began as a channel for us to discuss and renew our viewpoint of Bandung, the city where we live, by considering the perspectives of its residents through their day-to-day activities. We noticed how the diversity of those activities became more pronounced during the pandemic. Through social media postings around the middle of 2020, we realized that one of the most potent solutions to help people to get through this difficult time was to learn new skills as a way of adding experience and meaning to life. Survival isn’t always about basic subsistence such as food and shelter; it is also about how we can occupy our time with things that we find meaningful.
We then began mapping out the types of skills Bandungers were learning, and we looked at the different multi-discipline practitioners, specialists and artists whose work inspired them. We came up we three categories: nature, culture, and technology-related activities. The categorization was our effort to acknowledge the holistic nature of human creativity and activities rather than be people-centered. The ingenuity of Bandung’s thought leaders transcends time; it is shaped through their knowledge of history, practiced in a certain period of time, yet progressive and forward-looking.
Set against this context, we agreed to entitle the project Kota Kita Nanti. These intertwined words became our anchor during our discussions with different practitioners, questioning things that many of us may have taken for granted in all corners of Bandung. What does this city mean to us? What is “us” when we talk about Bandung? What can we do to shape and build this city in the future, build tomorrow?
The diversity of disciplines of the practitioners that this book features is the first step to Kota Kita Nanti. Our sharing sessions enlightened us: the practioners define Bandung, regardless of their occupational category. “They”, who represent various backgrounds, gradually became “Us”, as they took turns and elaborated their observations and findings from all around Bandung and from different perspectives. There are things we often fail to recognize—or perhaps they are invisible, things that the practioners captured thanks to their passion—and they developed into specific skillsets. Kota Kita Nanti is an attempt to document and share their thoughts. We hope that our readers will be inspired by the stories of activities that we have compiled in the book and will share the meaning of today’s Bandung with others—perhaps even be a part of us who define a new meaning for the city, Tomorrow.
Artati Sirman, completed her BA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London, and obtained her MA in Art Business from Sotheby's Institute of Art London. Her main interests focus on art market research and arts management. She was an Assistant Director at ROH Projects for 3 years before relocating to Bandung in 2019 where she has been providing consultancy on commissioned projects for Gormeteria, and is now handling the PR & Media at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space (SSAS), Bandung, Indonesia.
Keni Soeriaatmadja, Graduated from Ceramic Studio, FSRD ITB in 2002, Keni received the Ganesha Prize Award which gave him a scholarship for a short module in Museology at The Amsterdam School of The Arts. Keni completed his master's degree in Anthropology at FISIP UNPAD in 2019.
From a grant from the Kelola Foundation, in 2015 Keni founded Sasikirana KoreoLAB & Dance Camp, a forum for the development of contemporary dance. Currently, he is developing DokumenTARI, a story-telling platform that is expected to be a source of studies for dance performers from various regions in Indonesia.
We're POT Branding House, a brand design and communication consultancy based in Bandung, Indonesia. Specializing in brand positioning, identity, naming, brand architecture, expressions and activations. Helping brand owners to reflect their soul— core potential and consciously transform into an authentic version of their brand. Becoming a zeitgeist and help shaping a more meaningful world.