Art and Writing Retreat Yogyakarta, 2026

“ In 2006 I had a four month Asia Link Residency with a Jakarta based arts community. During that time I travelled to other cities in Indo to collaborate with local artists, poets and musicians. I was travelling with four young artisans from Lampung and in Yogyakarta we met a group of young art students and performance artists. The art students were also punk and noise musicians. I handed them a bunch of my performance poems, they added music and we did a performance at a local music venue. Another group I collaborated with were performance artists who had an annual festival called Perfurbance. They invited me to take part in their festival on the famous street, Jalan Malioboro. It was incredibly exciting to be performing on the street again, something I’d done in my early performance days in Melbourne.

My favourite thing to do in Yogya was to go becak riding. Wiry old men spent most of their time sleeping in their becaks until a customer came along. We’d ride down to Taman Sari, the Water Palace, where in days long gone, the Sultan would watch his 39 wives frolicking in the clear blue pool before choosing which wife he would spend the night with!

Check out this link to a video edited by Sonia Bible from footage taken by a film collective called Buta Buti, another group I collaborated with. Some of them were only 17 and 18 years old and were already making great short films.

I also wrote a novel set in Bali, composed and recorded a jazz poetry CD with an Indonesian poet and jazz musician — all in four months!

Indonesia and especially Yogyakarta, is such a creative place. I learned a great thing there called Kreatif Spontan. It basically means: Let’s do it — now!

I’ll definitely be calling on that spirit when I return to Yogya in 2026 to run our creative retreat. ”
Jan Cornall