ComplexCity:
A Collaborative
street art Project

By Anagard and Ali Minanto

ComplexCity is a collaborative project first initiated by Anagard and Ali Minanto, who collectively invited participations from fellow street artists Kinky Twenty, Guerillas, and Young Surakarta. The concept for the project was first conceived during a colloquial forum at Charles University, Prague; where Minanto is researching as a doctoral cantidate. ComplexCity is a response to existing environmental issues, as it narrates the negative impacts it has on our urban lives; especially those caused by the mismanagement of garbage, waste, pollution, as well as carbon and gas emissions. It also aims to raise an awareness on environmental changes which poses a constant threat to civilizations worldwide.

Produced in collaboration with the Bumi Aku community, the project takes the final form of a video documentation which chronicled the four street artists as they took to the streets and painted on several spots around Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Drawing a focus to where they live and work, the artists turns inwards and explored these issues through looking at Indonesia as one of the largest contributors to plastic waste in the world. Each year the developing country produces 64 million tons of plastic waste, of which 3.2 million tons are dumped into the sea. It takes hundreds to thousands of years to decompose waste and plastic waste.

ComplexCity is firstly a collaborative project between artists and communities to create street art, but it is also an alternative platform where ideas and concerns can be voiced, debated, and amplified to to reach larger audiences. Most importantly, the project is an affirmation to how social activism is necessary to strengthen the pro-environment discourses in its resistance against its existing hegemonic counterpart.