Indonesia with its nearly 250 million inhabitants on 18 000 tropical islands and its breathtaking diversity of cultures and traditions is the third largest democracy and one of the fastest developing countries in the world. Jakarta and Berlin are twin cities since 1993 but this is, unfortunately, little known so far. This was our motive and a great chance to present the manifold recent culture of the vivid Indonesian capital as well as cultural interconnections between the seemingly distant Indonesian culture and Germany to a broad audience.
Therefore in the summer of 2011, from Saturday 25th of June to Sunday 3rd July, we presented the Jakarta Berlin Arts Festival to Berlin.
In collaboration with a variety of partners and supporters we initiated a dialogue between the multifaceted contemporary art scene of the capital of the world's largest Muslim country and the local scene in Berlin. We concentrated on those genres that we think to be most revealing in this context: contemporary music, theatre, dance, art and literature in its recent urban "Jakarta style". The art scenes of the two capitals can be seen as representatives of and central contributors to recent artistic developments in the respective country - they are melting pots constantly combining, blending, and creating.
All in all more than 100 Indonesian and nearly 50 German artists took part more than fivethousand visitors have seen all the big and smaller events of our rich berlin festival program. This website delivers detailed information about all participants, partners and events.
During the nine days scheduled, we intended to stage the first European performances of outstanding theatre, dance, music and performance productions from Jakarta. These were be part of the evening program and took place at different locations in Berlin (partly open air). Indonesian-German co-productions comprised a significant part. Indonesian exhibitions as well as small-scale readings of contemporary Indonesian authors in dialogue with Berlin authors and artists were be part of the daily programme. In addition, there was a day-program with lectures, panels, and workshops on contemporary Indonesian and German arts and their interconnections at the famous Humboldt university.
Main sponsor of the festival project was the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (DKLB foundation). Especially the embassies of both countries have been supporting us in several ways. Beside this, many famous partners as the Berlin Senate, the Berlin House of World Cultures or the Jakarta Arts Council and many more local and international Institutionens supported our project (details see: "partners and sponsors"). The heads of both cities, the Gouverning Mayor of Berlin Mr Klaus Wowereit and Jakarta's governor Mr Fauzi Bowo, commonly took over the patronage of the festival and have been active participants in the program too.
We say "thank you" and "terima kasih" to all our sponsors and suppoerters, but especially also to all artists and team members who made hppen this wonderful and unique festival!
Martin Jankowski (director)
Advisory Board Jakarta Berlin Arts Festival (curatory/Kuratorium)