Simposium Khatulistiwa (2010-2018)

In 2010, The Yogyakarta Biennale Foundation designed and launched The Jogja Biennale project as a series of exhibitions with a long-term agenda that will run until 2022. The Yogyakarta Biennale Foundation is determined to make Yogyakarta and Indonesia more broadly a location that must be taken into account in the international art constellation. Amidst the highly dynamic global art scene—which appears to be inclusive and egalitarian—the hierarchy between the center and the periphery is still very real. Therefore, the need for intervention has become urgent.

The Yogyakarta Biennale Foundation envisions a shared platform capable of countering, interrupting, or at least provoking the dominance of the center, and presenting alternatives through the diversity of contemporary art practices from an Indonesian perspective.

Since 2011 until 2021, The Yogyakarta Biennale Foundation will organize The Jogja Biennale as a series of exhibitions based on one major theme, namely Khatulistiwa (Equator). This biennale series will set specific geographical boundaries on the planet Earth as its working area, namely the region stretching between 23.27 N and 23.27 S. In each of its events, BJ will work with one or more countries or regions as ‘partners’, inviting artists from countries within this region to collaborate, create, exhibit, meet, and engage in dialogue with Indonesian artists, groups, and arts and cultural organizations in Yogyakarta.

This journey around the planet near the equator begins by traveling westward. The Jogja Biennale does not begin this journey eastward because it recognizes the limitations of knowledge about the Pacific and even the archipelago itself.

The regions or countries around the equator that are planned to collaborate with The Jogja Biennale until 2021 are: India (2011), Arab countries (2013), countries on the African continent (2015), Latin American countries (2017), Pacific Island countries and Australia including Indonesia as the Archipelago (2019) or due to the unique scope of this event, it can be referred to as the ‘Ocean Biennale’ and finally, countries in Southeast Asia (2021).

Alongside with it, in the intervening years, The Yogyakarta Biennale Foundation also held The Equator Symposium. Based on knowledge exchange, this symposium serves to expand the scope, work, and new networks built by The Jogja Biennale which in each of its events is limited to cooperation with one region or even one country in particular. This symposium is designed to maintain existing relationships and build new relationships along the equator region. The first symposium was held in 2014 and will be held every two years (2016, 2018, 2020). The work of The Jogja Biennale and The Equator Symposium will ultimately culminate in the Equatorial Conference in 2022.

Why Khatulistiwa?

The concept of Khatulistiwa or Equator is not only envisioned as a framework that accommodates similarities, but also as a starting point for realizing the cultural diversity of today's global society. It is a shared tool of re-reading the world. It will be held in the spirit of building sustainable networks, so that dialogue, cooperation, and partnerships can give rise to new, broader, and more sustainable collaborations among practitioners in the equator region. In this way, The Jogja Biennale can contribute to the formation of a newly defined global art landscape.