Over the past year or so I’ve been catching a whole bunch of shit being put up across the net from the Solidarity Movement – especially the big paintup that they did in Singapore late last year, which looked all kinds of awesome. Initiated by the RSCLS crew, the Solidarity Movement sees artists from across the region get together to do what it is that they love doing most – decorate walls, talk art and spread the good word of all things grand and painted.

“An archipelago of 18,307 islands, Indonesia is a country with one of the most vibrant and influential contemporary arts scenes in South East Asia.

With such a diverse cultural and visual identity, it is not surprising to see that even the urban art scene is massive and vibrant. “The earlier generation of graffiti art practitioners has paved the way for the current crop of graffiti writers and street artists
since tiielridonesian graffitiart movement started in the late 90s to the early 2000.

With initiatives like TembokBomber and ISAD (Indonesia Street Art Database) serving as a platform for networking and sharing information on urban art practices, Indonesia has one of the most exciting and biggest urban art community in South East Asia. SOLIDARITY21 seeks to further understand the nuances and influences of lndonesian culture and social fabric in its contemporary graffiti and street art practices.

The SOLIDARITY21 Movement is the principal program initiated by RSCLS to create a regional sharing network for urban arts. It is also a program that seeks to document, archive and provide an understandinq and education of street art and graffiti as an art form in the context of each different city in Asia.”

This next event sees one of the biggest yet – with artists from Thailand, Indonesia and getting together for it all to both exhibit work and do a bunch of live art from Alexface, Clogtwo and Menaw- and what a massively cool array of artists, too. It’s all free, of course, and has a bunch of artists talks and opportunities to meet them all as well.

This is the kind of thing that we want to see more of – not just in SE Asia, but here in Australia as well. We often all get caught up in doing our own thing so much, and so many people get stuck in their little cliques that they forget about all the amazing shit that is happening right next to them in their own countries, and their neighbours. Organised efforts like that from the Solidarity Movement go a long way towards fostering the general publics understanding of our artforms, and helps to increase communication between artists – all of which leads to more exciting opportunities for the artists to their creativity.

If you’re around Jakarta this week, head to Gardu House and see it all for yourselves – you wont get a finer display anywhere else in SE Asia this weekend.

Who: Antz, Clogtwo, Inkten, Spaz, Traseone, Zero, Dem, Spiz, Seams Two, Alias, Tutu, Fartz, Kumkum, Ivory Chiko, Tuyuloveme, Menaw, Cube, Alexface, Bon, Cartoon420, Gong – live performances from Indo Beatbox x Jalan Surabaya x Cek Omback Project
What: Solidarity Movement – An Urban Cultural Exchange
Where: Gardu House, Jl Rc Veteran Raya No 13 Gg H Ropiah/Route 66 Tanah Kusir, Jakarta
When: Event starts January 25th, 2014 and from 3pm and runs until about 9 or 10pm (from what I can gather!)

15.00 : Artist Talk and Discussion by All Artist
19.00: Opening Exhibition and Live Painting – there’s also talk of a BBQ where you can talk to all the artists.

Check out the Solidarity movement Facebook page for more info!