Festival Mata Air

Festival Mata Air is TUK’s annual community Art and Music event to raise awareness about the environment and the issue of water. In its fourth year running, Festival Mata Air has become an international platform for collaboration and exchange between a wide range of art communities, musicians, environmentalists and local residents. With a strong emphasis on grass roots community organising, capacity building and skill sharing, this festival has established itself as a significant community-based environmental awareness campaign.
Festival Mata Air 2009 will be a 3-day festival held at Senjoyo Water Springs, on the boarder of Salatiga and Kabupaten Semarang (Semarang Outer Districts). This particular water spring is of vital importance to the local and wider community, industry, government and several branches of the army, who access the water directly from the springs. As there are so many parties involved in exploiting this beautiful natural resource, Senjoyo has become an issue of contention and a conflict of interests. Unfortunately water conservation and protection rarely seem to arise in the current debate. As water debit levels continue to drop at an alarming rate and water use continues to rise, the sustainable future of this ‘spring of life’ is at great risk and the implications of this are devastating.
Given this, the theme for Festival Mata Air 2009 is “Water Conservation & Protection”.

OBJECTIVES

Festival Mata Air 2009 has the following objectives:

•To educate, entertain and raise awareness about concerns for our local environment, particularly water conservation & tree planting.

•To open dialog about environmental protection and water conservation and how the community and external parties can be actively involved in the sustainable protection of our natural resources.

•Become a platform for Local, National and International ARTS. To encourage urban expressions, contemporary arts and collaborations between local and international artists and activists.

•To strengthen and expand the working relationships between art and environmental communities in Australia and Indonesia.

TIME & PLACE

Festival Mata Air 2009 is scheduled for the

9th - 11th of October 2009. Activities will begin mid year as part of TUK’s Environmental Campaign in the lead-up to the festival dates. Festival Mata Air 2009 will be held at Senjoyo Water Springs, Kabupaten Semarang, Central Java.

Keep posted for details of events and activities. More information will be posted soon....

Participation in this project is welcome. Contact TUK if you would like to join in our residency program, help out with installation making, costume workshops, collaborative drawing or much more.