ABOUT THE
BIENNALE JOGJA
The BIENNALE JOGJA (BJ) is a
festival that focuses on visual art, and has been held every two years since
1988. Since 2011, the BJ has used a different strategy in its presentation, in
line with a new vision and direction that has been managed by the Yogyakarta
Biennale Foundation.
The equator series is a strategy
that utilizes the line the Equator draws around the globe as a concrete
practice in exploring and re-reading the world. "Biennale Jogja XIII:
Indonesia Meets Nigeria” is the third part of the BJ Equator series. BJXIII
will look at the connection between Jogja (Indonesia) and Nigeria as partner
nations who will interpret the same issues, as they share a history of
colonization and recent release from military regime. As a biennial event, the
BJ XIII will maximize efforts to make this BJ as an event in collaboration with
the city's residents.
Thus, apart from using Taman
Budaya Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Cultural Park) as an exhibition space, the BJXIII
will also use Yogyakarta's city spaces and surrounds as a site or a creative
arena for artists to intervene on local issues. To this end, the main events will
include an Art Exhibition, Community Art Projects and the Equator Festival.
BIENNALE JOGJA
DRAFT OF THEME 2015: STAGING CONFLICT,
HACKING HARMONY
Indonesia and Nigeria are both
former colonies; however, both were only truly free of authoritarian regimes at
the end of the 90s. In Indonesia this was signified by the demise of the New
Order regime in 1998. Nigeria is unique because its military regime was in fact
ended by the military itself in 1998. After the fall of this authoritarian
rule, the state and the people both speculated and experimented with democratic
systems in seeking the ideal, autonomous form, each according to their
understandings and desires. This has created a disharmonious gap in social and
cultural infrastructure.
The situation became even more
chaotic within the understanding of a larger nation (consisting of various ethnicities,
traditions and languages) with abundant natural resources.
In practice, individual freedom
of speech and opinion for all of these people of diverse ethnicities and
languages is a fertile field for the cultivation of opposition and conflict. In this, conflict must always be seen as a positive. Its existence must be invited
and understood absolutely as something, which must be managed in order to
create unexpected harmony. However, in this context democracy is not merely
seen at a political level but is also understood as a way of living together in
all of our differences and our chaotic economic, social and technological
infrastructure, based on the principles of living that society is currently
experiencing.
A strategic but speculative
strategy is required to take apart this conflict, so that it can shift from
asymmetrical to symmetrical patterns. This is an appropriate thing to attempt
through dissecting and presenting the bitter seeds of conflict and chaos
through imaginative artistic and cultural work; dynamic and open to be enjoyed,
contemplated and deconstructed together.
EVENT:
1. Main
Exhibition
The main exhibition will include
around 40 artists, consisting of 25 Indonesian artists and 11 Nigerian artists.
The curator of the exhibition wants to test forms of artistic intervention
through a working practice that involve artists, other cultural workers and diverse
professionals. In this exhibition several Nigerian artists will be invited to implement
a similar pattern, working collaboratively and conceiving of the exhibition as
a sort of joint artwork that involves the community.
Participant forums will begin work from March
2015 until the exhibition closes. An online forum will be made available for mutual
introductions, discussions and formulation of concepts and patterns of collaboration.
Five participants from Indonesia
will undertake month-long residencies in Nigeria in June 2015, and then in
September 2015 four artists and one curator from
Nigeria will continue their
working processes in Indonesia for three months.
2. Community Art
Projects (Parallel Events)
The implementation of community
art projects will be focused on neighborhoods in the Yogyakarta Special
District, by involving residents and socio-cultural activist communities,
environmental activists, alternative education movements, book enthusiasts and
artists.
This project will be open to art
and cultural communities in general in Yogyakarta and will priorities their
implementation in the neighborhoods of Yogyakarta.
Based on visual art, eight to ten
communities who work collaboratively and across disciplines will be chosen.
This project will emphasize how citizens adapt to the changing reality around
them, visually and spatially. Art groups/communities will enact their artistic
practice in order to enter into the problems that residents face. Every group
will present their project in the form of an exhibition in the art spaces of Jogjakarta.
3. Equator
Festival Program
1. Archive Sharing Program:
Contestation and Visual Art Actions in the Street.
2. Yogyakarta Painters Exhibition
Program, Seni Sidoarum House, Sleman, Yogykarta.
3. Creative Reading Practice
Program, in Panggungharjo, Sewon, Bantul, Yogyakarta.
4. Land Festival Program in
Giripeni, Wates, Kulonprogo.
VENUES
• The BJ XIII Exhibition will use
the Sultan Palace’s South Square (tentative) as its main exhibition space.
• Several neighborhoods selected
by art communities for the Community Art Projects.
• The Jogja National Museum will
be the presentation space for community works.
• The Festival Equator will be
held in several locations: Seni Sidoarum House,
Yogyakarta public spaces,
Panggungharjo Village, Sewon, Bantul, and Giripeni Village,
Wates, Kulonprogo.
DATES FOR
PRESENTATIONS
Community Art Projects, 1
October—10 December 2015
Main Exhibition, 1 November - 10
December 2015
Equator Festival, 1 November - 10
December 2015
Event Characteristics: Free
Entrance / Open Festival
BIENNALE JOGJA
2015 WORKING TEAM
Director: Alia Swastika
Artistic Director: Rain Rosidi
Curator: Wok The Rock
Associate Curator: Jude Anogwih
(Nigeria)
Event Information:
Festival Name: BIENNALE JOGJA
XIII: Equator Series III, Indonesia Meets Nigeria
Hosts: Yogyakarta Biennale
Foundation
Director YBY: Yustina Neni
Office: Taman Budaya Yogyakarta,
Jl. Sri Wedani no. 1, Yogyakarta
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