The upcoming Jakarta Biennale is expected to move forward and apply some changes to its original concept. These changes are hoped to make the event one of the world’s most important international artistic gatherings.

Renowned British art curator and author Charles Esche will act as lead curator for this year’s Biennale, and has said that the Indonesian art community must identify their own “moment of danger” in order to expand local arts.

“This moment of danger is what motivates us humans to find solutions and is often the driving force of experimental culture,” he said recently at a public lecture at the Auditorium of Faculty of Humanities at University of Indonesia campus in Depok, West Java.

 â€œThe world is no longer solely looking into Indonesian traditions but also how they fit in the international arena. There is a relationship between bringing the world into the Biennale and to take the Biennale out into the world,” added Esche.

Titled “Art, Society and the World Now”, the public lecture was organized by the British Council and constituted one part of a series of such events in Jakarta and Makassar related to artistic gatherings and the world of contemporary art.

Esche, currently working as the director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, shared his experiences as a curator for a number of events, including the Gwangju Biennale of South Korea in 2002 and last year’s Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil.

He said that the next Jakarta Biennale could be as successful as both Gwangju and Sao Paulo in catapulting local artists and art communities to the attention of the world.

Esche suggested combining the biennale model of location used in Gwangju with an antagonistic concept — making a political point of view — such as that employed in Sao Paulo for Jakarta.

Esche said that Jakarta possessed all of the necessary elements, and that he would plan to put Ciliwung River, the largest and longest river that runs through the city, at the center of the art event.

“From there we can talk about history, the identity of the people, water issues, pollution, poverty, women rights and many other things,” he said.

“The location itself is a pull factor as the world is now looking at Indonesia. Imagine an international kampong as the world comes together in one place. Contemporary art and the contemporary world in one place. The other factor is the activities that are connected to it. I hope we will make a good exhibition,” he added.

 The Jakarta Biennale, themed “Maju Kena, Mundur Kena: Bertindak Sekarang” (Learning from the Present: Act Now), will be opened on Nov. 14 at the old warehouse of Indonesia’s oldest department store Sarinah. A string of public events and six community projects and exhibitions will last until Jan. 17, 2016.

The other speaker at the public lecture, historian and social activist Hilmar Farid, underlined on how art changed dynamically to more accurately reflect the current world.

Siasat project mural The Popo.(Jakarta Biennale)<)