Komunitas Salihara Arts Center, a cultural hub in South Jakarta, returns with its biennial literary festival, the Literature and Ideas Festival (LIFEs). This year’s theme, Becoming Indonesia, invites audiences to reflect on and reinterpret issues of self, identity, community, and nationhood, ideas which are now most relevant both within and beyond Indonesia. The festival runs from 8 to 16 August 2025 at multiple venues in Jakarta, with Salihara Arts Center as the main site.
Founded in the early years of Indonesia’s democracy, LIFEs is one of the nation’s longest-running literary festivals. Its programming spans seminars, discussions, performances, literary feasts, and workshops. In 2025, to celebrate Indonesia’s 80th year of independence, the theme Becoming Indonesia takes on new urgency, exploring whether the meaning of nationhood still holds in the eyes of younger generations.
LIFEs Director and Literary Curator Ayu Utami expressed her gratitude for the growing number of literary festivals in Indonesia and LIFEs’ place among them. As one of the country’s oldest active literary festivals, LIFEs 2025 introduces fresh innovations, offering a range of interactive programmes and collective creative experiments.
Among them is Rumah dengan Selembar Tikar, a modular archival theatre piece based on the BPUPKI (Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence) transcripts. The text has been read in full over the past two years by the public in events hosted by Komunitas Salihara and Komunitas Utan Kayu. During the festival, visitors can explore an interactive gallery exhibition and read BPUPKI excerpts aloud.
Another experiment, Urban Raga, blends choreography with words. A biographical essay-writing programme on Becoming Indonesia is also set to run long-term. “We want more than small talk. We aim to offer depth and a shared creative process,” said Ayu.
Unlike LIFEs 2023, this year’s festival is extended with pre- and post-LIFEs events on 2–3 and 22–23 August. During the core 8–16 August programme, visitors can attend discussions, workshops, performances, lectures, and exhibitions.
Events include readings by emerging literary talents followed by a Literary Dinner; discussions such as Literature and the Subaltern, Dark Indonesia and Beyond, Classic Yet Fun with Ignas Kleden & Parakitri Simbolon, Mass Action of the Archipelago’s Spies, Indonesia on My Path, The Controversy of Rewriting Indonesia’s History, and Identity and (De)Colonisation.
Interactive activities range from Urban Raga workshops to a cooking session on recipes from Mustikarasa, a cookbook from Soekarno’s era. Poets can join the Jakarta Poetry Slam: Grand Slam 2025, while silent reading sessions will be held across the Salihara complex.
Performances also feature prominently, including Jazz as a Method of Becoming Indonesia, Law as Culture: An Idea of Indonesia, and tiny revolutions by pvi collective. Notably, The Gaza Monologues brings the voices of Palestinian teenagers living under occupation. The festival closes with music from Sukatani, known for channelling generational unrest into art. While the interactive exhibition Becoming Indonesia at Galeri Salihara combines graphics and video with key literary and artistic texts.
Artists from Palestine and Southeast Asia will share perspectives on freedom and identity. This year’s 35-plus performers appear in 20 in-person events spread throughout August.
Full schedules are available at lifes.salihara.org.
