Toward the end of 2019, “ESOK” was conceived as the main theme of the Jakarta Biennale XVI. The idea is to touch on the numerous life issues in the world today: human rights, the environment, diversity, gender equality, political polarization to digital disruption.
These problems have been revolving; being read, contemplated, discussed, and expressed in the corridors of contemporary art. By way of a rereading of history and a gaze toward the future, strategies and experimentations in what art can offer bear the urgency while in search of and creating meanings of ESOK.
Raising hope for ESOK, the Jakarta Biennale mutates to offer the novelty of the future. When the pandemic later passes, we will build a new history together, toward ESOK that we aspire to.
