Yogyakarta, June 22, 2026 — The Faculty of Fine Arts and Design (FSRD) of the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) Yogyakarta hosted the first day of the Asia Pacific Art Forum (APAF) 2026 on Monday, June 22, 2026, at the Sasana Ajiyasa Building, FSRD ISI Yogyakarta. This international forum carries the theme “Artistic Intelligence.”.
APAF 2026 brings together academics, researchers, curators, and artists from Indonesia and Australia to discuss the role of art as a space for knowledge production, cross-cultural dialogue, and creative responses to contemporary developments. This event is part of a collaboration between ISI Yogyakarta and Project Eleven to strengthen academic and artistic networks in the Asia-Pacific region.
The event was officially opened by the Rector of ISI Yogyakarta, the Founder of Project Eleven, Konfir Kabo, and the Dean of FSRD ISI Yogyakarta. The opening was followed by a keynote lecture by Professor Marie Sierra, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne.
In her presentation, Marie Sierra emphasized that artistic intelligence is the human ability to process imagination, experience, and cultural values into meaningful knowledge. According to her, artistic intelligence is increasingly important in the era of artificial intelligence because art is capable of presenting creative, inclusive, and human-experience-centered perspectives.
The theme “Artistic Intelligence” is raised in response to the tendency to define intelligence, which has long been associated more with logic, data, and computation. Through this forum, art is understood as a way of knowing rooted in experience, intuition, affect, social relations, and cultural context.
In Panel Session I, moderated by Dr. I Gede Arya Sucitra, S.Sn., M.A., three speakers were present: Dr. Elly Kent from The Australian National University, Dr. Tisna Sanjaya from the Bandung Institute of Technology, and Mang Moel from Mogus Studio Yogyakarta. All three discussed art practices as a medium that bridges experiences, cross-cultural identities, creativity, imagination, and environmental awareness.
Meanwhile, Panel Seminar II, moderated by A. Sudjud Dartanto, S.Sn., M.Hum., featured Jumaldi Alfi from Sarang Space Yogyakarta, Dr. Alexandra Roginski from the Victoria Museum Melbourne, and Brigitta Isabella, M.A. from FSRD ISI Yogyakarta. This panel discussion explored art as a space for producing knowledge based on experience and local context, including efforts to reconnect Indonesian collections in museums with their origins and communities.
PIC Symposium APAF 2026 FSRD ISI Yogyakarta, Yasin Surya Wijaya, S.Pd., M.A., stated that this symposium demonstrates the importance of artistic intelligence in understanding contemporary challenges.
“Through this symposium, we see that artistic intelligence is not only related to the ability to create works of art, but also to how art generates knowledge, builds cross-cultural dialogue, and nurtures the relationship between humans, history, and their environment,” said Yasin.
He added that the exposure from the speakers showed that artistic practices play an important role in addressing issues of cultural identity, heritage preservation, as well as social and environmental problems. Therefore, FSRD ISI Yogyakarta is committed to continuously providing a space for the exchange of ideas that brings together local and global perspectives in the development of art, design, and culture.
Through APAF 2026, ISI Yogyakarta reaffirms its position as an art higher education institution actively building international networks, expanding the artistic research ecosystem, and promoting art as an intellectual and cultural force. This forum also serves as a strategic space to open broader collaboration opportunities among art education institutions, communities, museums, curators, artists, and cultural practitioners in the Asia-Pacific region.
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