f Art is capital: Between cultural memory and the creative industry

This article focuses on jeprut, a form of performance art from West Java, Indonesia, which addresses the interconnections and tensions between natural, sociocultural and political environments. The article explains how jeprut underlies the artistic ideas, media and practices of Bandung-based artist Tisna Sanjaya (b.1958), who was one of the pioneers of the genre in the mid-1980s. With his jeprut-inspired printmaking, painting, installation art, performance art, television drama and cultural centre, Sanjaya has addressed the interrelations between the destruction of the natural environment, cultural heritage, political authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism, among others. The author argues that the work of Sanjaya and other jeprut artists has promoted art, culture and spirituality as fundamental human capital. The artists provide a necessary complement and corrective to the rapid expansion of the creative industry in Indonesia, which is predominantly about capital in the narrow sense of finance and economic development. The article also describes how the creative activism has materialized in immediate results, such as the cleaning of a river, the preservation of a city forest and the protection of a cultural centre in Bandung.