Making “Creative” Movement: Transformation of Urban Culture and Politics in Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper shows how Bandung city has emerged as a “Creative ( kreatif ) City” by examining the cultural practices by urban young people and the rise of Bandung mayor Ridwan Kamil. Westernized urban young people in Bandung have been historically developed into or conceptualized as “creative” ( kreatif ). The term kreatif doesn’t have any specific definition but means anything new and different. Ridwan Kamil as an architect has shrewdly and successfully used the ambiguous concept of kreatif to become the Bandung mayor. Bandung has been the heart of popular culture in Indonesia since the 1970s. Many young people who enjoyed Western popular culture established the music magazine in the 70s and independent fashion outlets in the 90s. Creative industries have encompassed music and fashion industries since the mid-2000s. In 2008, Ridwan Kamil formed Bandung Creative City Forum in order to support such creative industries. As a result, youth cultural practices have been “creativised.” Ridwan Kamil made an effort to realize Bandung as “Creative City” through several creative festivals. From the perspective of this historical socio-cultural context of the city, I argue that Bandung has two different characteristics, compared with other coun-tries and cities, which adapted the creative industry policy: First, the city supported local products such as music and clothing by the bottom-up social movement, not by top-down government policy. Second, Bandung’s creative movement boosted “brand localism,” not the “brand nationalism.”