Design Boom

ONG CEN KUANG introduces first outdoor collection at Jia CURATED 2026 | Image by Iwan Sastrawan

DISSOLVING THRESHOLD BETWEEN HUMAN CREATION AND NATURE

Grounded in the Indonesian principle of Gotong Royong, the 2026 event‘s narrative positions curation as a resilient ecosystem of collective effort. Through this lens, Jia CURATED becomes an intentional intersection where distinct disciplines, generations, and cultural lineages flourish together.

Co-founder and curator Budiman Ong frames the iteration as a call to dissolve the separation between human industry and the natural world. Adopting the core principles of biophilia, the exhibition integrates grounding materials, and organic patterns into the shared environment to directly nurture community well-being. ‘The question is no longer how we can take inspiration from nature, but how we can work alongside it more thoughtfully, to create in ways that are less extractive and more regenerative, designing not only for ourselves, but for the larger systems of which we are a part,’ Budiman Ong declares.

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