artistic team

Katia Engel based in Berlin and Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is an interdisciplinary artist working in between choreography, sound and sculpted objects. A constant in her practice, which spans from performative formats to multimedia works is her ongoing reflection on human perception and body memory in relation to the more-than-human world. In recent years, her artistic practice has shifted towards listening as both artistic method and field of research. Through Points of Listening, she initiates collaborative inquiries into acoustic ecologies of specific places. Her works have been performed and exhibited among others at: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul (KR), Hong Kong Art Festival, Kuan Du Art Festival (TWN), Singapore International Film Festival, Indonesian Dance Festival, Art Festival ArtJog Yogyakarta (ID), Dumbo Art Center New York (US), Neues Kunstforum Köln (DE). Katia holds a certification as Movement Analyst (Laban-Bartenieﬀ Institute of Movement Studies, New York) and is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator (RSME).

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Ari Ersandi is a choreographer based in Lampung, South Sumatra, Indonesia, who holds a Master’s degree in Dance from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta and he is a co-initiator of Points of Listening. His choreographic practice explores the physical and psychological limits of the human body, addressing contemporary issues while inviting audiences to reflect on the meaning of human existence. Ari lived for five years in Tenggarong, East Kalimantan, where he helped develop the dance department at the local arts institute. During this time, he explored the diversity of Dayak (Indigenous Kalimantan) communities, their rich dance traditions and their relationship with the forest environment. Ari has collaborated with international artists on stages worldwide, including America Dance Festival (US), Europalia (BE), Hong Kong Art Festival, Kuan Du Art Festival Taipei (TWN), Harare International Festival of Arts (Zimbabwe), Andong Mask Dance Festival (KR) and Indonesian Dance Festival. In 2023, he received the Performing Arts Excellence Award in Pranakhon Si Ayutthaya Rajabhat University’s Dance Film Project programme as part of the 4th International Symposium on Creative Fine Arts. Ari is the founder of Punya Arts Studio, a creative space in his hometown of Lampung that supports emerging artists in developing their practice. Instagram: @ari.ersandi & @studiopunya

Sisilia Hangin was born and grew up in Long Penaneh, a village in the hinterland of East Kalimantan. Her family is of Soputan Dayak (the indigenous) lineage by the Mahakam river. She learnt to dance since childhood, firstly to serve the many customary ceremonies in her community. After graduating from high school, Sisilia continued her dance study at the National Institute of the Arts (ISI) of Yogyakarta which opened a pioneering programme of ISBI (National Institute of Arts and Culture) in Tenggarong, of the Kutai Kertanegara regency. She graduated in 2020. The yearning for engaging in the arts took her to move to Samarinda – the provincial capital – and she now works as a teacher for arts and culture at a school. Amidst teaching, Sisilia gets herself involved in various arts communities in the city. Dancing has taken her to numerous events, especially to represent the Mahakam Ulu regency or the East Kalimantan province, one of the is to perform at the Mandalika International Festival di Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (2023). Participating at Hutan is her first experience in an international production within the context of contemporary performance. Sisilia takes with her a rich embodied experience, thanks to her closeness to the forest that is deeply rooted in the Soputan community from which her family comes, who occupy a remote area at the tip of East Kalimantan, a location that remains challenging to reach from the nearest urban areas.

Instagram: @sisiliahangin

Polett is a Ljubljana–Budapest-based freelance dancer and intimacy coordinator for film and television. After graduating from the Hungarian Dance University in Budapest with a Bachelor’s degree in Dance, she began her professional career with the Czech National Ballet in Prague in 2011. She later joined the Slovenian National Opera and Ballet in Ljubljana, where she was promoted to demi-soloist. In 2016, she became a soloist with Hessisches Staatsballett Wiesbaden–Darmstadt, expanding her practice into contemporary dance theatre and collaborating with choreographers including Itamar Serussi, Jeroen Verbruggen, Wayne McGregor, Alexander Ekman, Pablo Girolami, Tim Plegge and Kristian Lever.

Since 2018, Polett has worked as an independent artist, collaborating with Beatrix Simkó (HU), Kristina Aleksova (SLO), Via Negativa (SLO), Katia Engel (DE), Jenna Jalonen (FI) and Matej Kejžar (SLO). She has performed internationally in Belgium, Sweden, Japan, Indonesia, Switzerland, Ukraine, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Austria and the Czech Republic. In 2023, she directed and choreographed her first dance performance, SQUARE 1, with Mateja Železnik, and joined Ljubljana’s Pekinpah Association, producer of the Spider – Festival of Radical Bodies. She received a second diploma in cultural management in 2024 and completed Safe Sets’ SAG-AFTRA-accredited intimacy coordinator training in 2025. Since then, she has worked on international film productions and led workshops at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana.

Samuel Hertz based in Berlin is a composer and researcher working with sound-sensing networks in environmental science, whose work spans electronic music, interstellar radio transmissions, deep-sea broadcasts and doom metal concerts. Alongside his solo practice, he collaborates as a sound designer for choreographic and theatrical projects, creating immersive sonic environments through experimental uses of performative sound. His work has been exhibited and performed at Ars Electronica Festival (AT), Palais de Tokyo (FR), Akademie der Künste (DE), Pioneer Works/Wave Farm (US), the Onassis Foundation (GR), Kunstmuseum Bonn (DE), Biennale for Sound and Listening (DK), National Science + Media Museum (UK), and the International Space Station, among others. In collaborative performance contexts, his work has been presented at Tanzplattform Deutschland (2020/2022), ImPulsTanz, Sophiensaele, Shedhalle, BONE Festival for Performance Art and Videonale.19. Hertz is a graduate of the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music, where he studied with Maggi Payne, Pauline Oliveros, Zeena Parkins, Fred Frith and Roscoe Mitchell. He is the author of numerous publications on sound and critical environmental listening practices, and holds a PhD in Geography from Royal Holloway, University of London, where he is a visiting lecturer in sonic geographic practices.

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Riski Ade Pradista (Qirun) born and based in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, is a lighting designer specializing in dance, theatre, music and interdisciplinary performance. Active since 2016, he trained in stage lighting under Iskandar Loedin, Sugeng Yeah and Alim Jeni, developing a practice that combines artistic vision with technical precision. In 2025, Riski received a Stage and Lighting Design Internship Scholarship in Melbourne, Australia, with placements at the Union Theatre – University of Melbourne, Melbourne Theatre Company and Lucy Guerin Inc. The programme was supported by the Australian Government, AsiaLink and Turning World. Riski views lighting as an integral dramaturgical element that shapes atmosphere, narrative and spatial experience. For HUTAN, he developed a lighting concept that recreates the qualities of light in a Kalimantan forest, including humidity and the atmosphere of a moonlit night. He has collaborated with artists including Melati Suryodarmo (Studio Plesungan), Eko Supriyanto (Ekosdance Company), Ari Rudenko (Prehistoric Body Project), Ari Ersandi, Hari Ghulur, Garin Nugroho (Samsara), Gondrong Gunarto, and the musical productions Perahu Kertas and Mar. Alongside his design practice, Riski also works as a lighting programmer and operator for theatre, dance, music festivals and corporate events. Instagram: @chaosstage04

Gatot Danar Sulistiyanto (1980) was born and grew up in Magelang and now resides in Yogyakarta. A graduate of ISI Yogyakarta, majoring in musicology, he is a composer and sound artist who is also interested in investigating the audio technology – which basis he learnt when he did a vocational education in electronics.

He is the artistic director for an annual music festival, Pertemuan Oktober, since 2017. Apart from composing and investigating sound as music, Gatot consistently conducts research on the relations between audio and music for which he co-founded Art Music Today (AMT) Audio Lab as a platform as well as co-initiated the Rekam Bergerak community.

Some arts projects that he did are Radio Isolasido for Jogja Biennale (2021), Radio Ansambel at Abandon Normal Devices Festival (2021) as a collaborative project of Indonesia and the UK practitioners; field recording at the Pekan Kebudayaan Nasional Rantai (2023), Tempuran Spatial Audio Project (2023) and Studi Bunyi (Sound Study), an educational audio-music and technology for artists and cultural activists (2023). Gatot also co-founded a company, Seruni Audio, at which he works as the CTO.

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Faozan Rizal based in Berlin and Yogyakarta graduated from Jakarta Institute of Art majoring in Cinematography and continued his study at the French film school La FEMIS, in Paris. He is well known as one of the pioneers of experimental film in the 1990’s in Indonesia.

Faozan has written and directed among other YASUJIRO JOURNEY (Busan, 2004), ARIES (Singapore, 2005), FUGU (competition, Cinema Digital KOREA, 2009) and ABRACADABRA (Beuchan International Fantastic Film Festival – in Korea 2020).

Faozan Rizal works as cinematographer and film director for features film with focus on the South-East Asian region as well as for various documentary projects around the globe.

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