Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the role of curators in shaping the production and circulation of contemporary Indonesian art. By focusing on the materiality of curatorial practices, this paper also examines the notion of global artworlds with the rise of diverse art worlds in Southeast Asia.

Paper long abstract:

By conducting an ethnographic study of Biennial Jogja (Equator series), Art fairs, museums and the global web of auction houses in Indonesia, this paper looks at how aesthetic dispositions are produced through curatorial practices beyond European and US centers. More specifically, this paper explores how the practices of market abstraction of global artworlds and the aesthetic sensibilities of contemporary Indonesian art have been legitimized and contested in local arrangements, and to what extent the role of curators as cultural mediators matter in these processes. This paper will deepen our understanding of how material and visual culture has been symbolically and practically deployed in cross-cultural exchange, and how reciprocity has regarded as a fundamental mechanism in circulation as a means of cultural translation.