Starting from 2011, the Biennale Jogja XI, which takes place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, has been working its way around the equator, an area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Biennale Jogja looks further towards the future, intending to open up new perspectives and to develop confrontations that engage with existing conventions and the establishment by examining similar situations all over the world.
The discourse of contemporary art has become very dynamic, but we understand that the dichotomy between center and periphery remains. There is a need to identify new opportunities as well as seeking out the potential for more valuable meaning to be developed through a biennale event. The geopolitical parameters of North and South, which are interconnected with categories of wealth and territories defined in terms of stereotypical ethnicity, that have impacted the development of contemporary culture. We dream of differentiation; we hope to be the initiator and catalyst for the creation of alternative relations and inter-relations in the practices of art. The equator will be the common platform to re-read the world. At the same time, the equator can negate the existence of the ‘centers’ by offering a specific territorial framework. This project aims to introduce a decentralised perspective through these terms.
is a curator from Indonesia, she is currently the Director of Jogja Biennale Foundation. She will share her perspective and experience of negotiating this concept of a new internationalism using the Biennale Jogja Equator as a case study.