The Indonesian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale presents "Printing the Unprinted: The Reversal of World Discovery," a project that reimagines global history by casting an Indonesian kingdom as the explorer who discovers the West. Seven Indonesian artists—Agus Suwage, Syahrizal Pahlevi, Nurdian Ichsan, R.E. Hartanto, Theresia Agustina Sitompul, Mariam Sofrina, and Rusyan Yasin—participated in a two-month residency at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, collaboratively creating works through printmaking and expanded forms. The pavilion includes exhibitions, workshops, and symposiums that challenge dominant narratives and highlight Indonesia's contributions to maritime technology, commerce, arts, and knowledge.
This project matters because it flips the colonial script of discovery, asserting that non-Western cultures were active agents in global history, not passive subjects. By focusing on printmaking as a political act, the pavilion interrogates who controls historical archives and memory, addressing themes of colonial echoes, migration, and identity. The residency model emphasizes process and collaboration over finished products, offering an alternative to traditional national pavilion presentations and championing a reimagined Indonesian presence in contemporary art discourse.