After 16 years, the Biennale Jogja Foundation, which runs the Biennale Jogja, will cease operations. The foundation has organized 8 editions of the biennale and of the Khtaulistiwa Symposium and of Asana Bina Seni, an artist and curator development program.

The Biennale Jogja focuses on art and artists around the equator in Southeast Asia. In its last edition, the biennale focused on the theme of kawruh, a Javenese word that means deep, lived knowledge that comes from habit and ritual.

“Reflecting on the political situation in Indonesia today, we have come to the conclusion that we need to REST,” said representatives from the foundation in a statement. “Under a political regime that has failed to recognize people’s cultures as the foundation of cultural identity—amid chaotic economic and political policies, increasing censorship, and violence against activists and protesters—we feel an urgency to pause. Not to escape difficulty, but to reclaim the freedom we need to engage in grassroots solidarities.”