Silk Road
Day 03
Jakarta
31 Oct – 2 Nov
2025
Into the
Auntieverse
/
IdeaFest Jakarta
In early November, we hosted Silk Road Day 03 / Jakarta. Across three days, we met with collectors and artists who are part of Southeast Asia's (digital) art scene – with presentations held in collaboration with IdeaFest Jakarta.
at IdeaFest Jakarta
30 October
We began the trip with a private visit to the office gallery of Wiyu Wahono, Indonesia's most avant-garde collector and therefore a very early advocate of new media and conceptual art.
Wahono guided us through his extensive collection, which includes works by Erwin Olaf, documentation of Melati Suryodarmo's Butter Dance, enormous installations, video work, photography by Zhang Huan, sound pieces, a vending machine that dispenses water distilled from diabetic patients' urine, and augmented reality installations – just to give some examples.
Do you want to know more about the collector and his vision? Read our interview with him here, in case you missed it.
31 October
On Friday, we welcomed Niceaunties to Jakarta. Niceaunties transforms the nuances of Asian ‘auntie culture’ into very captivating stories, blending architectural sensibility with AI-driven, surreal narratives that celebrate the endearing quirks and the resilience of everyday life.
MoMA #0812
2024
1 November
The highlight of our Jakarta presence - and the actual day event - took place during IdeaFest Jakarta, a leading annual creative festival that connects tech savvies, designers, innovators, creators, and their audiences across all disciplines.
On the main stage, Niceaunties delivered a talk that captivated the audience. Through her witty and insightful reflections on Asian auntie culture, she had the room nodding and laughing, being fully engaged.
Following her presentation, our editor-in-chief Nina Knaack joined her on stage for a conversation that touched on IP/authorship within AI art, world building, creative authenticity, and how ideas come to fruition. When asked about copycats and public skepticism towards AI-generated art, Niceaunties reminded the audience that every artistic practice begins with curiosity. "If you create from that," she said, "it will always be authentic."
Later that afternoon, SILK presented its own session, titled 'Art World's Best Kept Secret.'We introduced SILK as an art house for the digital age, presenting the evolution of digital art from early web-based experiments to blockchain and AI-driven practices.
Through these lenses, we positioned digital art as a major chapter in contemporary art history – one that demands new infrastructures for curation and context. In our talk, we gave an overview of what we do and how this forms a foundation for how digital art can be created, how it can live, can evolve, and can be experienced (in the real world).
Silk Road Day 03 / Jakarta formed a continuation of our ongoing quest to show how art and technology intersect globally – bridging ideas across different styles, mediums, concepts, regions, and generations.