The planet from where we stand

Some of the work included in this research trajectory was done by individuals that are now parts of Hyphen—. The planet from where we stand is indeed a research trajectory that answers to curiosities, needs, and desires of our peers. Under Enin Supriyanto and Yustina Neni's direction, Grace Samboh and Ratna Mufida came into this line of questionings whilst framing, constructing, and organising Simposium Khatulistiwa (2010-2018) (The Equator Symposium) that was a biannual event held in alternate year of The Jogja Biennale (Equator Series). With Konferensi Asia-Afrika (Bandung, 1955) as their departure, the symposium explored possibilities of connecting equatorial countries through current life situation with an admiration to the past and optimism towards the future.

Other events that now orbits around this research trajectory are, amongst others, "BINAL Experimental Arts" (1992) read more here; "Paris-Jakarta 1959-1960" (1992, Jakarta) read more here, "Contemporary Art from the Non-Aligned Countries" (1995, Jakarta) read more here, and the various exhibitions of 'Indonesia' abroad, beginning from the one in London, in 1952, that was organised by Hurustiati Subandrio.

Various encounters with other practitioners have generated our growing interest to look into exhibitions, festivals, or events, as fertile sites to constantly question once stance grew, so as the drive to recalibrate the constellation of beings.

Simposium khatulistiwa (2010-2018)

The equator symposium was a biannual event held in alternate year of The Jogja Biennale (Equator Series). 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 cooperate with one region or even one country in particular. This symposium is designed to maintain existing relationships and build new relationships between countries along the equator region.

Grace Samboh and Ratna Mufida were behind this symposium. They worked together under Enin Supriyanto and Yustina Neni's direction to questionings whilst framing, constructing, and organising The Equator Symposium.

Choreographed knowledges

What do you want to be when you grow up? Starting from childhood, we are taught to answer this question with a particular profession: A doctor, an astronaut, a teacher, a soldier, a police(wo)man, a painter, etc. This shows that humans are workers. If you are a doctor, wherever you will go, people will ask you about their health. Our work has an affect on our roles in our social lives. In fact, what do we accomplish by working? Does your job match your ideals? How do you choose the path of education you will travel? Does education limit or expand your choice of occupation? What is the attitude of the state towards education and employment to guarantees the continuity and welfare of the lives of its people?

In it's first public iteration, at Cemeti Institute for Art and Society, Yogyakarta, 2019, Grace worked with Julia Sarisetiati and Ary "Jimged" Sendy to grow the timeline. As for the second public iteration, at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2025, Intan and Grace generated the entries for the timeline, while Chita did the English translation. Translation to Japanese was by Kumakura Haruko.

Para sekutu yang tidak bisa berkata tidak

"Para sekutu yang tidak bisa berkata tidak" (lit. "The acquiscent allies", 27 January-14 March 2022) departed from the "Jakarta-Paris 1959-1960" (1992) and the "Non-Aligned Countries Contemporary Art Exhibition" (1995) that carved a chapter in the collection of the Galeri Nasional Indonesia. This exhibition investigates relationships amongst artists, their practices and their allegiances, regardless of their nationalities and supposed political identities.

Grace was one of four curatorial members of "Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories" (2017–2022), a collaboration between Galeri Nasional Indonesia, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (Chiang Mai), Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and Singapore Art Museum. For the Jakarta-leg of the exhibition, Chita and Rachel were members of the research team and writers for its catalogue.

Color curtain

Bandung marked a historical moment in which existing affinities and solidarities found a shared name—Afro-Asian—and entered cultural and political discourse after its first Asia-Africa Conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia, from April 18-24 in 1955. The Afro-Asian solidarity movement, catalyzed by Bandung, then emerged as an anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, and anti-racist movement.

Taking a point of departure from Richard Wright’s The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference (1956), this project seeks to re-examine the so-called “promise” of Bandung and the ways in which it was culturally articulated. We like to think of the cultural and artistic as part of a system of action, intended to change the world. This action-centered approach to art and culture is more preoccupied with the practical mediatory role of art in the social process, wherein cultural and artistic manifestations mediate social agency in the vicinity of persons, objects and activities.  

Rewinding internationalism

Rewinding Internationalism is an exhibition and research project that engages with the construct of internationalism through multiple scenes. It includes four new commissions and a number of collaborative research projects, alongside loans and archival material form public and private lenders. The departure point for the project is the 1990s–a period when the construct of internationalism was in deep flux across both political and cultural contexts.

Rather than represent a series of histories, however, works in the exhibition bring moments, places and people into dialogue. The dialogue across research and artworks allow evocations and implications to speak across the 1990s to the present moment, defined as it is by deepening and ongoing ecological and biopolitical crises and when the idea of internationalism is again in flux.

The exhibition’s title draws on writer and theorist Ariella Aisha Azoulay’s call to ‘learn to rewind’, understanding that any engagement with a specific moment in time, necessitates addressing the relationship and inter-connections with different historical moments as part of an ongoing present as well as ‘unlearning’ concepts that may have become sedimented over time, as is the case with the construct of internationalism.

It uses Azoulay’s writing as a prompt and an evocation: To address events in the past, not as over but as part of an ongoing present, a troubling of concepts such as the archive as neutral, and as means through which to question how we understand terms that we take to be descriptions of the world–such as internationalism.