Europalia Indonesia programme planning for 2017

Europalia presents a first impression of the programme for EUROPALIA INDONESIA 2017-2018. The festival will run in Europe, with events centred on Brussels, from 10 October 2017 to 21 January 2018. Europalia Indonesia will be the latest in the renowned Europalia Arts Festival biennial programme with a specific country focus.

Europalia together with the Indonesian team are now fully engaged in developing the festival programme. EUROPALIA INDONESIA will run from 10 October 2017 to 21 January 2018 and will present Indonesian traditions and contemporary culture (with a special attention for creation and exchange) in numerous exhibitions, dance and theatre performances, concerts, film and literary events in dozens of cities and municipalities in Belgium plus in several other European countries.

EUROPALIA INDONESIA will take you on a journey through ten of thousands millenia, in an archipelago whose internal dynamics and its dialogue with the outside world is exceptional. Indonesia has 17.000 islands, some 300 ethnic groups, speaking some 714 different languages .... A country that holds immeasurable artistic wealth, that is both steeped in tradition and modernity, its rurality and its smart cities, since Java Man until today.

Among other highlights announced, the programme will include an exhibition on Indonesia & Art (1835 till now) at Bozar 'Power and other things':

A chronological story beginning with four fascinating 19th and 20th century artists, including Jan Toorop and Raden Saleh, who shaped Indonesian art history. Alongside them, contemporary Indonesian and European artists, including Agung Kurniawan, Wendelien van Oldenborgh and Ana Torfs, will contribute mostly new creations. They testify to the interactions through trade, culture, religion, ideology and war that characterise Indonesia. A unique portrait of recent Indonesian history, from the last convulsions of the Dutch colony and Japanese occupation to today.

Since 1969, Europalia has organised some twenty-five festivals. Each has turned the spotlight on one culture in a comprehensive programme of music, fine arts, photography, cinema, theatre, dance, literature, architecture, design, fashion, gastronomy... The EUROPALIA team develops each festival with a national team from the guest country, working within a framework agreed with the country’s government and assisted by international culture experts.