Indonesia Promotes Cross-Sector Collaboration Through Creative Festival

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Indonesia’ Vice Minister of Creative Economy, Irene Umar, emphasized the importance of cross-subsector collaboration to strengthen a more inclusive, innovative, and globally competitive creative economy ecosystem. She delivered the statement during the press conference for Maxdecal Inkverse Fest 2026 at Agora Mall on Tuesday, May 19, 2026.

“Creative economy subsectors should not remain trapped in their own bubbles. We want cross-sector communities to sit together, discuss, and build collaborations that generate new ideas and innovations, like this Inkverse Festival,” Irene said.

Maxdecal Inkverse Fest 2026 is a tattoo and body art festival initiated by Maxdecal in collaboration with Indonesia Subculture. The event serves as a meeting space connecting body art artists with automotive communities, international motorcycle brands, photographers, and storytellers on an international-scale platform.

Carrying the theme “Where Ink Becomes Identity,” the festival will take place on May 30–31, 2026, at The Brickhall in South Jakarta, featuring a fusion of visual art, urban culture, and creative expression within a collaborative stage.

“This event is interesting because body art is not only presented as personal artwork, but also uses automotive culture as an artistic medium. There are collaborations with international motorcycle communities and brands such as Harley-Davidson, photographers documenting the works, and hopefully storytellers who can elevate the meaning behind every displayed design,” she explained.

The Vice Minister also highlighted that body art has strong roots in Indonesian culture, where symbols and visual patterns have long been used as part of community identity. This cultural potential, she noted, can be developed into intellectual property rooted in Indonesian cultural narratives.

“Our ancestors have long used body art to express identity and community stories through meaningful patterns, such as the Mentawai Tattoo tradition. Storytelling like this can be developed into films, books, and other creative works so Indonesia becomes increasingly recognized as a center of branding and creativity,” Irene stated.

Meanwhile, Project Director of Maxdecal, Nofian Hendra, said the vehicle sticker printing industry has evolved beyond a modification trend into a medium of creative expression representing the owner’s identity. He added that the concept of “Inkverse” was born from the idea that ink is the common thread connecting various forms of visual art, from tattoos and graphic design to vehicle decals.

“Everything starts from ink. Printing uses ink, tattoos use ink, motorcycle decals also use ink. Through ink, creative works can travel anywhere and reach different creative segments. That’s why we wanted to create a different kind of tattoo festival by combining many creative elements into one event,” Nofian said.

During the occasion, the Ministry of Creative Economy and Maxdecal also discussed potential collaboration to launch educational initiatives on the importance of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) registration for creative economy players, particularly in visual communication design and body art subsectors. The initiative is expected to raise awareness among creative industry players about protecting their works and strengthening intellectual property-based economic value.