MAIN
EXHIBITION

2 November – 10 December

In the main exhibition of Biennale Jogja XIV with the theme STAGE OF HOPELESSNESS, 39 artists from Indonesia and Brazil are invited to exhibit their works. The 27 Indonesian visual artists invited to join this event are those active within the last six years and already held solo exhibitions during the last two years. Meanwhile, the 12 Brazilian visual artists were selected based on the discussion with Gabriel Bogossian, a curator from Videobrasil organization.

At first seven repertoires were offered to be freely interpretated by the visual artists participating in this main exhibition. The repertoires are: Denial of Reality, Anger towards the Condition, Despair of Loss, Resignation in Absence, Consolation over the Loss, Awareness of the Condition, and Retrieval of Reality.

During the ongoing creative process, some visual artists faced a number of dead ends and hurdles they never thought before. The visual artists, who were about to explore the seventh repertoire at the beginning, had to jump to the fourth repertoire after knowing another reality beyond what they had believed previously. Another visual artist, who initially tried the unexplored repertoire, was forced to get back to the one he had been used to.

The dynamics taking place in the creative process arise from the different parallel activities, that led them to different decision. Therefore, the seven repertoires presented in Biennale Jogja today are not exhibited in sequence at the three floors of the Jogja National Museum. Instead, they are randomly arranged depending on the space required by the work to present a new dramatization that is expected to touch people emotion.

Almost the majority of the Indonesian visual artists exhibit new works. Some of them come up with a new method they never tried before. A number of Indonesian visual artists chooses not to display new works, but instead they continued and modified their previous works with all necessary adjustments to the current theme.

Three of the twelve Brazilian artists joined the residency program in Yogyakarta, while another artist continues his work in Indonesia. The other two Brazilian visual artists underwent the creative process with long-distance instructions, while another one collaborated with an Indonesian visual artist from far away.

All works in this exhibition on each floor of the Jogja National Museum are presented in different nuances. The nuance is constructed in such a way that binds together all works exhibited on each floor. This is to anticipate all contrastive differences between the works exhibited by the Brazilian and Indonesian visual artists. There are obviously different orientations in scrutinizing the problems between the works exhibited by the Brazilian visual artists and those of Indonesia visual artists. Nevertheless, the existing differences are not to be compared to one another, but to complete and strengthen each other, and thus construct one intact narration. (PS)