Jakarta Biennale: Arts for all

Jakarta is about to turn into an art capital as the Jakarta Biennale 2011 international contemporary arts exhibition spreads its charm across the city.
People enjoy artwork on display at Ayodya park in South Jakarta. JP/Nurhayati

This year, the art festival takes “Jakarta Maximum City: Survive or Escape” as its theme, reflecting Jakarta’s charm in luring people to come and seek a better life, despite its limited capacity to cater for humanity.

Involving the work of some 200 local and international artists, the biennale also presents contemporary arts in public places – from shopping centers, public parks, train stations, bus terminals, main thoroughfares, art galleries and even riverbanks.

The works have touched the idle monorail stumps in the Senayan area, making them livelier and more colorful, as well as the Central Park shopping mall in West Jakarta and the Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in East Jakarta.
Street art is splashed in Dukuh Atas underpass in Central Jakarta. JP/P.J. Leo

The artworks reflect the overcrowded-yet-attractive city while trying to portray Jakartans as creative people in finding ways to survive the chaos.

The art event, which began last year and lasts until this mid-January, also features various performances, from music, theater and dance to film screenings.

Organized by the Jakarta Arts Council since 1968, the Jakarta Biennale, which is held every two years in collaboration with the Jakarta Culture and Tourism Agency, has been trying to raise people’s appreciation of the arts and invoke their critical thinking through the different art forms.

The biennale focuses on five themes including violence, resistance, leisure and metro-text seductions, while attempting to advocate for freedom of religion and expression as well as the freedom to enjoy a better quality of life and freedom from fear.

“We believe that art is present everywhere — in buildings, in city parks, and in other public places,” said Aisul Yanto, the council’s head of the Fine Arts Committee.

“Art shouldn’t be exclusive.”