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Futuristic Semar: Cast members of 'Mencari Semar' pose with director Rangga Riantiarno (top, third left), scenographer Deden Bulqini (top, fourth left), Bakti Budaya Djarum Foundation’s program manager Billy Gamaliel (top, center) and Teater Koma’s cofounder Ratna Riantiarno (top, fourth right) on July 31, 2025, after attending a press conference at Galeri Indonesia Kaya in Jakarta. JP/Sylviana Hamdani
Futuristic Semar: Cast members of 'Mencari Semar' pose with director Rangga Riantiarno (top, third left), scenographer Deden Bulqini (top, fourth left), Bakti Budaya Djarum Foundation’s program manager Billy Gamaliel (top, center) and Teater Koma’s cofounder Ratna Riantiarno (top, fourth right) on July 31, 2025, after attending a press conference at Galeri Indonesia Kaya in Jakarta. JP/Sylviana Hamdani
Art & Culture premium

‘Mencari Semar’: Teater Koma seeks ancient wisdom in the digital age

The play unfolds in the futuristic realm of the Nimacha Empire, where humans are gradually being overpowered by droids and robots.

3 days ago
Art & Culture premium

Artistic heritage meets modern beats at 2025 ‘Pagelaran Sabang Merauke’

Music director Elwin Hendrijanto says the show will fuse contemporary arrangements with traditional sounds like Kalimantan’s Karungut and the Batak song “Rambadia”.

5 days ago
Art & Culture premium

LIFEs 2025 explores national identity through art and literature

The Literature and Ideas Festival returns from Aug. 8-16 with "Menjadi Indonesia", featuring over 35 performers.

1 week ago

The Latest

Art & Culture

'Nomadland' China release in doubt after nationalist backlash

Zhao became the first Asian woman in history to win the best director Golden Globe and the first woman to win best drama with the semi-fictional film, which stars Oscar winner Frances McDormand alongside a rag-tag bunch of non-actors living on the open road in the American West.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Banksy takes credit for work at Oscar Wilde jail

The artwork shows a prisoner escaping on a rope made of bedsheets tied to a typewriter.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Forgotten mausoleum of Roman emperor Augustus reborn

A newly renovated colossal mausoleum for the founder of the Roman empire Augustus has reopened to the public in the Italian capital after centuries of neglect.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Illustrators seek equal footing with authors in Indonesian publishing scene

Book illustrators long for a holistic publishing environment that rewards artists for their time and skills.

4 years ago
Art & Culture premium

For Indonesians, instant noodles mean life

“We don’t know if it’s good or bad, we eat it simply because it’s easy and fast” - Indonesian artist Cynthia Delaney Suwito uses the staple meal to get her point across.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

KAWS retrospective opens in New York

The artist's unique creations have been featured around the world but the exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum marks the first major retrospective in his 25-year career.

4 years ago
Art & Culture premium

The sad state of Indonesian museums

The January burglary of the Southeast Sulawesi museum shows that Indonesian museums need more support, funding and updating amid the international efforts to repatriate looted art and artifacts.

4 years ago
Art & Culture premium

The painter behind 'pecel lele' banners

The ubiquitous paintings found in street food stalls did not arrive from nowhere; it came from one painter in East Java with big dreams

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Egypt unearths 'world's oldest' mass-production brewery

The site containing several "units" consisting of about 40 earthenware pots arranged in two rows was uncovered at North Abydos, Sohag, by a joint Egyptian-American team, the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Stonehenge likely made with stones from older monument: study

Researchers believe some stones used at Stonehenge, near Salisbury in southwest England, were used in an earlier monument 175 miles (280 kilometres) away in southwest Wales.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Will money laundering laws end art world's culture of secrecy?

The culture of secrecy of auction houses selling expensive art is ripe for exploitation by criminals.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Ballet isn't as psycho as 'Tiny Pretty Things' say French dancers

"We aren't killing each other" - French ballet professionals take umbrage at their portrayal in popular culture.

4 years ago
Art & Culture premium

How a dance genre considered corny crossed boundaries

Once known as dance music for poor Indonesians, Funktot is gaining popularity in the mainstream

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Israelis find 'royal purple' fabric from King David era

The discovery happened while they were examining coloured textiles from Timna Valley, an ancient copper production district, they said in a joint statement this week.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Documentary tells the strange story of the murder of Kim Jong Un's half-brother

Nearly four years after the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, a new documentary seeks to shed light on the brazen airport murder and the involvement of the two young women accused of carrying it out.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

‘Stories Across Rising Lands’ explores diversity in SE Asia

“Stories Across Rising Lands” kicks off as a new exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN).

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Louvre ties up with Japan's Uniqlo for Mona Lisa T-shirt sales

Under a four-year partnership, the museum will create T-shirts and other clothing items together with the Uniqlo clothing brand for sale online as well as at stores. The items will be sold at Uniqlo stores in Japan and worldwide from Feb. 4.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

‘Influx: Inauguration’ show marks birth of new creative space

A group of artists joins an exhibition at a newly opened creative space in Bandung.

4 years ago
Art & Culture premium

Art talk: A conversation about conservation

A painting can be many things at once: a conversation starter, a think piece, an expression of ideals or even just something to spice up a room.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Singapore Art Week returns, bigger and closer than ever

Travel restrictions will not keep art-lovers from attending more than 100 events that display the diverse range of works of 300 artists, including Indonesians, and curators worldwide.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

America captivated by young Black poet after inaugural reading

Gorman, 22, recited "The Hill We Climb" at the inaugural, a poem inspired by the US Capitol attack touching on how democracy "can never be permanently defeated."

4 years ago
Art & Culture

‘Tale of Nowhere’:Transcending boundaries to reach an imaginary world

With imagination and technology, mythical animals from Bali’s fables are brought to life in a virtual exhibition.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Macron rejects petition to move Rimbaud to French Pantheon

A petition campaign last year backed by a host of celebrities as well as French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot called for Rimbaud to be re-buried alongside his lover and fellow poet Paul Verlaine at the monument in central Paris.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Virtual AGSI exhibit heralds 2021 with homegrown talent

The virtual exhibition takes viewers on a tour through rarely seen pieces by Indonesian artists, some of who have employed the technique of appropriation to create new works that give artistic expression to Indonesian-ness.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

World's oldest known cave painting found in South Sulawesi

The finding described in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday provides the earliest evidence of human settlement of the region.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Kennedy Center arts awards to honor Joan Baez

Choreographer and actress Debbie Allen, country singer-songwriter Garth Brooks and violinist Midori round out the 43rd class of honorees.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Strong whiff of wartime scandal clings to Coco Chanel

What no one mentioned was that Chanel had spent World War II in the luxury hotel with her German officer lover working as a spy for both German military intelligence and the SS.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Naufal Abshar: Chronicling spirit of changing times

Nine months into the COVID-19 invasion that spread havoc throughout the entire arts ecosystem, there seems to be no signs of it abating as yet.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

A hot air balloon but no parade for the Three Wise Men

The Three Wise Men flew over Seville in a hot air balloon on Tuesday morning, after traditional street parades on the eve of the Epiphany were cancelled throughout Spain to avoid drawing big crowds amid the coronavirus pandemic.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

The show goes on: Transforming beyond the digital veil

Despite the pandemic, the show must go on, albeit on virtual stage.

4 years ago