At the beginning of the XXth century, its clay industry made Jatiwangi the biggest roof-tile producing region in Southeast Asia. The project Kota Terakota (Terracota City) thus marks the beginning of a new clay culture for Jatiwangi, remodelling the city based on its people’s desires and their collective agreement. In this sense, Kota Terakota speaks to “terra” not only as a material, but also as land, territory, or idea.

For the past 10 years, Jatiwangi has been planned by the Indonesian government as part of a strategic industrial development zone called ‘Segitiga Rebana’. In response, JaF is developing strategies for its region to be catalogued of ecological and cultural significance, to build from that space alternative discourses to technocentrism.

PERHUTANA, part of the Kota Terakota project, consists of reclaiming an 8 hectare plot of land from the industrial development plan and turning it into sacred (conservation) land. It involves the act of creating a collectively owned forest, utilizing the transactional logic of a real estate company as a method of collective action.

By participating in PERHUTANA one gets the following: a 4m² plot of land that will later be donated for the creation of the forest, a terracotta certificate, designed and made by artists from Jatiwangi Art Factory and a digital certificate.