TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post
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

'Slavery and the City' tour sheds light on London's dark past

 A tour showing London's links to the slave trade aims to shed light on how British institutions - from megabanks to the state church - prospered on the backs of Black lives.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Peru unveils giant cat etching at famous Nazca site

A giant 2,000-year-old figure of a feline that was on the brink of disappearing will be the new cat's meow when Peru's remarkable Nazca Lines attraction reopens to tourists in November.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Saudi woman makes world's 'largest coffee painting'

A Saudi artist has created the world's "largest coffee painting", becoming the first woman from the country to achieve a record title single-handedly.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

British artist Banksy claims hula-hooping girl street art

The elusive British street artist Banksy confirmed on Saturday that a new artwork that appeared on a wall in Nottingham, central England, depicting a young girl using a bicycle tire as a hula-hoop is his work.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Fun for fun's sake: Artist seeks to lift gloom with London installation

Artist Amy Broch's playful art installation in the heart of London aims to create a "joy bomb" as an antidote to tough times.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

In a pandemic year, Mexico's Day of the Dead will be more subdued

Ratcheting back the celebrations is a sacrifice that must be made if Mexico is to curb the spread of the pandemic.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Spain's Prado drops painting from female expo after artist revealed as man

Madrid's Prado museum abruptly withdrew a 19th century painting from an exhibition of Spanish female artists on Wednesday night after an online art sleuth showed the work in question was actually painted by a man.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Siberia's treasured wooden houses face uncertain future

The ornate wooden homes dotting the Siberian city of Tomsk are cherished landmarks, but that hasn't prevented many from falling into disrepair following years of neglect, with some now facing demolition.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Contemporary artist takes a hard look at Cambodia’s troubled past

Aiming to recall the history before and during the Khmer Rouge era (1970-1979), “Recollection” presents two series of performance photos by globally renowned classical dance and music company Sophiline Art Ensemble and Bunarath, an emerging photographer.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Robbery or social justice? French court fines activist who pinches colonial relics

A French court convicted Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza of aggravated robbery and fined him 1,000 euros ($1,176) after he snatched a 19th century central African funerary post from a Paris museum in June.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Aztec headdress would be damaged in journey to Mexico, Austrian museum says

Granting the wish of Mexico's president to have a famous Aztec-era headdress sent from Europe to Mexico for an exhibition would seriously damage the fragile pre-Hispanic artifact.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Exhibition centers on women’s universe to heal the world

An exhibition opening during the pandemic may be a cause for surprise given the less favorable situation, but it also denotes the enduring spirit of art’s creative energy.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Egypt singer adds modern touch to Islamic chanting

At age 41, Tohamy is inspired by the mystical Sufi branch of Islam and deeply committed to the spiritual essence of the ancient performance of devotional poetry and odes.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

New York Philharmonic cancels 2020-21 season over COVID-19

The New York Philharmonic has cancelled all shows through mid-June 2021 over the coronavirus pandemic, the first time the 178-year-old institution has been forced to scrap an entire season.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Dutch ready to give back seized colonial art, but to whom?

A cannon that once saluted a Sinhalese king and a diamond looted from an Indonesian sultan are among thousands of objects seized during the colonial era whose rightful owners Dutch authorities are intent on tracking down.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

French museum halts Genghis Khan show after Chinese pressure

A French museum won backing from scholars for its decision to halt an exhibition about Mongol leader Genghis Khan because of a censorship attempt by the Chinese government.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Dance reaches beyond the physical and through the virtual 'wall'

It is said that art thrives in strife, and Indonesian dance is breaking new ground at home (literally) and beyond as it stretches the bounds of the physical stage to reach audiences through digital space.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Mexico urges Austria to return Moctezuma's headdress

Mexico's president said Monday that he had given his wife the "almost impossible mission" of persuading Austria to return a feather headdress said to have been worn by Aztec emperor Moctezuma.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Meet the six-year-old pianist who plays Rachmaninoff

When Guillaume Benoliel sits at the piano stool rehearsing Rachmaninoff's Italian Polka for a forthcoming concert, his feet dangle in the air.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Torlonia collection's ancient sculptures back on show after restoration

One of the world's biggest private collections of antique marble sculpture is bringing restored works, from mythical creatures to statues of emperors, back to public display in Rome this month.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Magelang cultural festival provides platform for artists amid pandemic

The 2020 Pinggir Kali Festival is livestreamed on Komunitas Pinggir Kali’s (Riverside Community) YouTube channel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Art star Gabriel Orozco's pandemic: A screen-friendly opening and new introspection

There was no formal opening or personal interaction with fans. Instead, Gabriel Orozco, the Mexican artist with a continents-spanning perspective, promoted his new collage watercolors with a dramatic, screen-friendly teaser.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Royal Ballet leaps out of lockdown with online extravaganza

The Royal Ballet, Britain's largest ballet company, leaps back into action on Friday after seven months of COVID-19 gloom with an extravaganza that mixes classics such as Romeo and Juliet and Don Quixote with playful modern dance.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

A trove of Basquiat drawings in a French village? Experts scoff

Modern art rebel Jean-Michel Basquiat turned out scores of drawings in his short career, but more than a few eyebrows are being raised over a French gallery show of 35 unknown -- and virtually priceless -- works from the artist.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Historic Armenian cathedral damaged in Karabakh shelling

Armenia said Thursday that Azerbaijani forces had shelled a historic cathedral in Nagorno-Karabakh's city of Shusha, where AFP journalists saw the church had suffered serious damage.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

American poet Louise Gluck wins Nobel Literature Prize

Gluck, 77, was honored "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal," the Academy said.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Swedish Academy hands out Nobel Literature Prize after scandal years

After several years of scandals and wildcard picks, the Swedish Academy will on Thursday crown the 2020 Nobel Literature Prize laureate, with literary experts hedging their bets due to the unpredictability of the exercise.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Stolen $300 million Mao scroll found 'cut in half': Hong Kong police

A stolen poetry scroll written by Mao Zedong and valued at hundreds of millions of dollars has been recovered, Hong Kong police said Wednesday -- but not before it was cut in half.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Online art happenings to feature Malcolm Gladwell, Thurston Moore and Mary Weatherford

Gagosian is collaborating with celebrities like Malcolm Gladwell and Thurston Moore on a new digital venture.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Channeling 'anger into art', artists in Beirut process blast

With the debris cleared, the halls of a heritage building are now open to visitors to view more than 100 works of art by mostly Lebanese and Arab artists, reflecting on the explosion itself and also the turmoil and wars of past decade.

4 years ago