In August 1876, a 21-year-old French poet who had already written his best work got off a train in Salatiga, Central Java, collected his army pay, and vanished. He was never seen in Indonesia again. One hundred and fifty years later, that disappearance just launched a literary program.

At a glance

• 150 years since Arthur Rimbaud's 1876 journey through Semarang, Kedungjati, Tuntang and Salatiga
• 3 months: length of the first residency, September–November 2026, in Semarang
• 1 writer: Louis-Philippe Dalembert, Haitian-French novelist, first-ever resident
• 2027: an Indonesian writer heads to France for the reciprocal residency

The Rimbaud Residency is the first bilateral, reciprocal literary residency between France and Indonesia. It was launched on 6 August 2026 in Semarang by Ambassador of France Fabien Penone and Semarang Mayor Agustina Wilujeng Pramestuti, alongside the exhibition "Arthur Rimbaud: A Journey through Java" at Lawang Sewu, running 6–8 August 2026. The program is organized by the Institut français d'Indonésie, the City of Semarang, and Alliance Française Semarang, with Universitas Negeri Semarang, PT Kereta Api Indonesia and PT Kereta Api Pariwisata as partners.

Credit : IFI Communication

Who was Arthur Rimbaud, and why does Java care?

Rimbaud published his entire literary output  Le Bateau ivre, Une Saison en enfer, Illuminations  before he was twenty, then walked away from poetry entirely. Broke and restless, he enlisted in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army for the free boat ticket, landed in Batavia in July 1876, and was sent north to Semarang. From there he rode the train through Kedungjati and Tuntang to the barracks in Salatiga. Seventeen days after arriving, he deserted. What happened next is still argued over by biographers today.

That gap in the record is exactly what gives the residency its name. A poet history briefly lost track of, in a place he barely wrote about, is now the reason a French novelist is spending three months in Semarang.

Who is the first Rimbaud Residency writer?
Louis-Philippe Dalembert, born in Port-au-Prince and based in Paris, is the inaugural resident. He's the author of Avant que les ombres s'effacent (Prix Orange du Livre 2017), Mur Méditerranée (Prix de la Langue française 2019), and Milwaukee Blues, a 2021 Prix Goncourt finalist — all published by Sabine Wespieser éditeur. From September to November 2026, he'll work out of Lawang Sewu, the famously haunted former railway building in Semarang, while running workshops and public talks with UNNES students and local writers.

"The man with soles of wind"  the nickname history gave Rimbaud, and the phrase the residency's organizers keep coming back to.

How much does the Rimbaud Residency cost, and who funds it?
The press materials don't publish a budget figure. The residency runs under the Institut français d'Indonésie and its partner institutions, following the 2025 Borobudur Declaration on cultural strategy signed by Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Prabowo Subianto  the same framework that produced Choix Goncourt Indonesia in May 2026.

What happens next?
In early 2027, an Indonesian writer travels the other direction, to the Cité internationale de la langue française at the Château de Villers-Cotterêts the site where King Francis I made French the national language back in 1539. The Institut français d'Indonésie has also confirmed two more residencies, for creative writing and translation, before June 2027.

A poet who quit writing at twenty is now the reason two countries are funding people who haven't quit yet.