JIWA: Jakarta Biennale 2017

4 November – 10 December

Jakarta Biennale is a biannual international contemporary art exhibition. Jakarta Biennale was initiated by the Jakarta Arts Council in 1974 as an Indonesian Great Painting Exhibition. Since 2009, the art exhibition, has also been known as an international contemporary art exhibition. The latest Jakarta Biennale was held in 2015 entitled “Neither Forward Nor Back: Acting in The Present.” This year, Jakarta Biennale 2017 has appointed Melati Suryodarmo as its Artistic Director, with “Jiwa” (or Soul) as the artistic concept. As an art event with local and international relevance, a biennale functions as a dialogue between those two perspectives. The relentless search for the origin of Indonesian art, in the face of the fraught colonial legacy, forms the essential inspiration for Jakarta Biennale 2017. One of the ways to evaluate the complexity of identity is to re- think history. The exhibition aims to provide opportunities to experience the jiwa of art, by attempting to venture into the lives and stories of seminal figures of the recent history of Indonesian art. Familiarity with the history of art, is essential to trace jiwa in art practice today. There will be daily performances throughout the exhibition period by Em’Kal Eyongapka and Eva Kot’átková, symposiums and competitions. For more information about Jakarta Biennale, please visit www.jakartabiennale.net/en.