Vertical Villages: Level Up is the second phase of the collaboration between ruangrupa ArtLab, Keg de Souza and 4A, presented at the 15th Jakarta Biennale 2013. Vertical Villages: Level Up is contextualised within the theme of the 15th Jakarta Biennale, ‘siasat’ – translated as ‘tactics’ – which unpacks the strategies individuals and communities apply to navigate and negotiate the urban environment of Jakarta. Artists and collectives were invited to participate by making new work in Jakarta either in collaboration or response to specific communities and groups.

The installations in Vertical Villages: Level Up comprises a series of maps of Jakarta and Sydney visualising the experience of an emerging middle class. As a precursor to the Vertical Villages project in Sydney, Vertical Villages: Level Up engaged with a diverse group of students and teachers from international schools and residential developments in Jakarta examining the role that education has played as a strategy to increase mobility and status within both the city and the region. A number of Indonesian students currently studying in Australia were also interviewed as a means of creating connections between lived experiences of Jakarta and Sydney. The aspirations of these group are highlighted in this exhibition through the promotional materials distributed by international schools and universities abroad within Jakarta.