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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.

2 weeks ago

The Latest

Art & Culture

German musicians hold silent protest over lockdowns

Some of Germany's top orchestras, including Berlin's prestigious Staatskapelle and the Munich Philharmonic, staged protests on Monday, warning that coronavirus lockdowns pose an existential threat to the arts and entertainment industries.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

With morbid humor, Viennese look death in the eye

Even in midst of a deadly pandemic, the Viennese seek to look death straight in the eye -- an attitude on display at a morbidly humorous museum devoted to death and burial.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Glasgow artist launches plastic bag museum

To many, plastic carrier bags are considered historical items, representing the consumer excesses of the 20th and 21st centuries.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

In Frida Kahlo's old home, Day of the Dead 'offering' honors artists felled by pandemics

A traditional Day of the Dead "offering" in Frida Kahlo's iconic home in Mexico City has taken on a wider artistic homage, with an exhibition helped by French designer Jean Paul Gaultier also remembering artists who have died in past pandemics.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

‘Peer Gynt’ enters the virtual world for month of theatrical performances

A collaborative work of Asian performing artists will visit the audiences in the virtual world.  

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Robots get private view of major pop art show

London's Saatchi gallery is holding a private viewing for robots and humans, allowing people and machines to wander through the wacky world of pop artist Philip Colbert in a show designed to work both digitally and in real life.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Polish artist recreates famous Solidarity poster for abortion rights protests

Warsaw artist Jarek Kubicki has designed posters for the hundreds of thousands protesting against the restriction of abortion in Poland based on a famous image of the Solidarity trade union, which helped topple communism in the country.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Coronavirus forces Mexicans to celebrate Day of the Dead early

Mexicans this year paid their respects early to departed loved-ones in the capital city, where the coronavirus pandemic will cast a pall over cemeteries usually resplendent with color and light during the Nov. 1-2 Day of the Dead celebrations.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Thieves steal rare Nazi uniforms, weapons from Dutch museums

Thieves have stolen rare Nazi helmets, weapons and uniforms worth more than 1.5 million euros ($1.77 million) from two Dutch World War Two museums in recent months.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Coronavirus sweeps through Milan's La Scala opera house

The coronavirus is battering Milan's prestigious La Scala opera house, with 18 singers and nine musicians testing positive for the disease. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

'Pioneer' octogenarian Vietnamese artist gets first solo exhibit

A "pioneer" who has inspired generations of women artists in Vietnam, Mong Bich has won plaudits overseas and she has a watercolor in the British Museum's collection.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Puppets and pandemics: Creating art in the middle of a health crisis

A seemingly unending global pandemic is certainly not a good time for anyone, what with the economy tanking, leading to austerity and layoffs everywhere.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Misogyny in art? Spain's Prado pleads guilty

Slave, witch, prostitute or mother: a new exhibit at Spain's Prado explores how misogyny influenced the way women were portrayed in art, and the role that the museum itself played.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Danish museum brings witch hunts to life

The fire crackles and a woman shrieks as flames lick her body, burning her alive -- a museum in Denmark is bringing the dark period of witch-hunting to life.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

5-km-long artwork pays homage to abused Iraq Kurd women

Along a five-kilometer stretch of road in Sulaimaniyah, an Iraqi Kurdish artist on Monday unveiled a stitched collage of clothes from women survivors of domestic violence.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

First in SE Asia: Art Jakarta fair goes completely virtual

Amid the challenges posed by the pandemic and health protocols that have been put in place, Art Jakarta takes a bold step by replacing its physical format entirely with a virtual platform.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Giacometti sculpture in sealed bid auction, starting price $90 million

A sculpture by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti is being auctioned by Sotheby's with a reserve price of $90 million but the winning offer on Tuesday could remain secret as it is being sold by sealed bid.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

National Cultural Week 2020 to feature exhibitions on Affandi, Prince Diponegoro

Held mostly virtually, the 2020 National Culture Week aims to provide space for the public to express their creative sides and drive the cultural-economy sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Masks, plexiglass and puppets: Atlanta takes opera to the COVID circus

The life-art imitation question is age-old, but if 2020 has anything to say the answer is clear: even the fictional characters of our operas have developed COVID-19.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Iconic UK arts institutions get £75 million virus funding

The British government on Saturday announced a £75 million (82 million euros) rescue package to save 35 cultural institutions hit by the coronavirus pandemic, including London's iconic Globe Theatre. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Dutch museum unveils unseen pics by master lensman

Amsterdam's famous Rijksmuseum unveiled a set of long-lost pictures Friday taken around the 1950s by Dutch master lensman Ed van der Elsken, considered one of the most influential photographers of the last century. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

'We've missed you', UK's Camilla tells actors at Olivier stage awards

Britain's Duchess of Cornwall urged theater actors to stay strong in the face of pandemic adversity as she presented lyricist Don Black with the Special Olivier Award at a virtual ceremony on Sunday evening.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Art galleries on the brink as pandemic lays waste to plans

COVID-19 has compounded the uncertainty created by Britain's departure from the European Union (EU), with a transition period ending on Dec. 31. That has left galleries anxious about how complicated it might become to stage shows and transport artworks abroad.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

David Hockney work sold by Royal Opera House fetches £12.9 million

A painting by British artist David Hockney sold by the Royal Opera House in London to raise funds to help survive the pandemic fetched nearly £13 million at auction on Thursday. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Mysterious vandal attacks at Berlin museums

Vandals have damaged dozens of artworks and artifacts at some of Berlin's most renowned museums, police said Wednesday, in a stunning attack kept quiet by authorities for more than two weeks.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Rare Brueghel the Younger painting sale in Belgium

A Belgian auction house said Wednesday it had sold a painting by Flemish renaissance artist Brueghel the Younger, marking a rare home-territory transaction for the master.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Banksy take on Monet masterpiece sells for £7.6 million

An oil painting by British street artist Banksy parodying a Claude Monet masterpiece sold in London on Wednesday for £7.6 million, the second highest price at auction for the mysterious artist.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Connecting the dots: Printmaking studio invites all to join ‘the gang’

A printmaking studio is offering a chance to own beautiful artwork for an affordable price as it opens customers to the wider world of visual arts.  

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Artist Atreyu Moniaga, singer Jewel join hands for coloring book

Indonesian illustrator Atreyu Moniaga has collaborated with American singer Jewel for a coloring book to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the singer’s debut album, Pieces of You.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Mexico's 'Weeping Woman' returns with pandemic-era twist

A disconsolate mother dressed in white wanders through Mexico City's floating gardens looking for her children killed by the coronavirus, in a pandemic-era adaptation of a legend rooted in Aztec mythology.

4 years ago