Fadli: Venice Biennale an Arena for Promoting Indonesia's Culture to the World
Jakarta — Culture Minister Fadli Zon has stressed that the Venice Biennale is an important platform for the development of global visual arts, and a strategic space to promote Indonesia’s image to international audiences. ‘This is also an opportunity to promote our culture, because there are so many talents, gifts, and—of course—wonderful cultural artists,’ Fadli Zon said in a statement received in Jakarta on Friday.
In addition to works by artists, the Indonesia Pavilion is planned to display a range of Indonesian visual-arts books as part of the reference material during the exhibition.
Fadli also said that the presence of these books could serve to introduce the richness of Indonesia’s visual-arts traditions to international visitors. Through these books, visitors can see the diversity of genres, styles and schools of Indonesian visual art, and these form a heritage inherited from ancestors.
‘As of 22 January, the oldest ancient painting in the world has been declared to be in Indonesia, aged 67,800 years. So the tradition (of visual arts) is not a new tradition, but a long-standing tradition found in Sulawesi, Kalimantan, and Sumatra,’ he said.
The Venice Biennale 2026 will be opened to the public on 9 May 2026 and runs until 22 November 2026. In this edition, the Indonesia Pavilion is planned to be housed in a graphic arts school building in Venice, unlike in previous editions which occupied the main area.
The Culture Minister has appointed Aminuddin TH Siregar alias Ucok, who is the curator of the National Gallery of Indonesia, as curator of the Indonesia Pavilion and will bring 14 artists to showcase works, after Indonesia’s six-year absence from the event.
Aminuddin explained that Indonesia’s presentation concept will display the historical context and visual arts in Indonesia through various graphic references and visual archives. ‘The idea is to showcase some graphic works related to Indonesia in the past, including old books, lithographs, and various other visual materials that can provide an overview of the development of Indonesia’s visual arts,’ he explained.
Indonesia’s participation in the Venice Biennale 2026 is part of strengthening the art ecosystem within the National Talent Management framework developed by the Ministry of Culture.