Indonesian and Arab countries’ shared cultural history has been tied up for centuries by Islam, the major religion of both regions’. WIth that in mind, with the Arabic countries as a partner, we focus on the inevitable: social, cultural and faith-based relations. Curated by Agung Hujatnikajenong (Indonesia) and Sarah Rifky (Egypt).

The Biennale is a channel for encountering diverse narratives, thoughts and interests in an exhibition medium.

Particularly in Yogyakarta, where the cultural and political formations also tend to the ‘syncretic’, contemporary visual art becomes open practice for encounters in the ‘local’ and the ‘foreign’.

In the case of the Biennale Jogja XII Equator, because of the intersecting histories between Indonesia and the Arab region, ‘the foreign’ potentially contains local aspects and vice versa, ‘the local’ is not always familiar to the space and social context that the exhibition occurs in.

The syncretic dimension in contemporary art is not only located in the artists’ concept that transgresses cultural and territorial limits, but also in the way that their artwork can create dialogue within new spaces.