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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

Damien Hirst remembers 'immortal' 90s with new show

Turner prize-winner Damien Hirst looks back on his time as one of the most notorious "Young British Artists" in a new solo retrospective show opening in London on Wednesday.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Tamarra Pertamina finds her home in acceptance

For some people, home is a place where you can kick back and relax, finding peace by leaving your worries outside the door.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

WHO, Greta or press watchdogs for Nobel Peace Prize?

The World Health Organization is the bookies' favorite to win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, though experts say Greta Thunberg or press freedom groups are also strong contenders. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

French MPs vote to return stolen artifacts to Benin, Senegal

French lawmakers unanimously voted to return prized artefacts to Benin and Senegal more than a century after they were looted by colonial forces and hauled back to Paris to be displayed in museums.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Paris Opera ponders blackface as it tackles ballet's race problem

The Paris Opera is looking at banning "blackface" in its ballets and operas after nearly a quarter of its staff called for a major shake-up of how it deals with race.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

'Men are so ugly' says 'Persepolis' author

Iranian Marjane Satrapi is famous for her films and graphic novels, but it is her painting which keeps her sane, she told AFP.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Digital curation and storytelling in GLAM institutions

The pandemic has forced museums to shift to digital platforms to survive.  

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Seizing art: One African man's protest against colonial 'pillagers'

A Congolese who has lived in France for 20 years, Mwazulu Diyabanza belongs to a pan-African movement that is pressing France to return those artifacts and make reparations for acts of slavery.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Lebanese artists in overdrive to restore Beirut's beauty

Lebanese stained glass artist Maya Husseini had hoped to retire after decades spent designing colorful windows, but she has been flooded with work since the blast that ripped through Beirut.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

On Nobel committees, women are in short supply

Marie Curie, Mother Teresa and Malala are among the just five percent of women Nobel laureates. But women are also heavily underrepresented in the institutions that select the prizewinners each year.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

London's Royal Opera House to sell Hockney painting to survive COVID crisis

London's Royal Opera House is to sell a 1970s painting by David Hockney as it seeks to raise cash to get through the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst crisis in its history.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Egypt unveils coffins buried 2,500 years ago

Archaeologists in Egypt said they had found 59 well-preserved and sealed wooden coffins over recent weeks that were buried more than 2,500 years ago.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

2020 Nobel season opens with medicine prize

Breakthroughs in the field of health will be honored Monday when the 2020 Nobel season kicks off with the medicine prize, as the world battles the worst pandemic in a century.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Rescue operation underway for Bulgaria's communist-era 'flying saucer'

The monument on Buzludzha Peak was dedicated to the glory of communism but since the collapse of that regime, it has fallen into disrepair.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

A biblical scene by Rembrandt could fetch $30 million at Sotheby's

After the spectacular announcement of a Botticelli portrait auction last week, art collectors are sure to be excited by Sotheby's latest masterpiece up for grabs -- a rare Rembrandt painting. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Polish divers hope Nazi shipwreck holds key to Amber Room treasure

Polish divers say they have found the wreck of a German World War Two ship which may help solve a decades-old mystery - the whereabouts of the Amber Room, an ornate chamber from a tsarist palace in Russia that was looted by the Nazis.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

France to hand back paintings looted by Nazis

The French government agreed Thursday to hand back three looted paintings to the heirs of a Jewish collector who died in a German concentration camp.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Thailand's annual buffalo festival races on despite travel ban

Thailand's annual water buffalo racing festival ploughed ahead on Thursday despite coronavirus travel restrictions leaving the event with a fraction of its usual tourist crowds.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

This exhibition in Korea is for art lovers and their dogs

A South Korean institution decided to launch an exhibition called "A Museum for All, A Museum for Dogs".

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Paint it black: UK postboxes change color to honor Black Britons

Four of Britain's distinctive red postboxes have been painted black and gold and adorned with images by or of illustrious Black Britons, in a novel way of celebrating Black History Month.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

A symbol of hope and perseverance on cloth

Like many events and celebrations this year, the annual Batik Day is likely to be overshadowed by the pandemic. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Argentine creator of Mafalda cartoon strip dies

Argentine cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado, who created the beloved comic strip Mafalda, has died aged 88, his publisher announced Wednesday. 

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Previewing Larasati’s October Traditional, Modern & Contemporary Art auction in Jakarta

The works are by an array of international artists, from throughout Southeast Asia, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Argentina and Australia.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Iconic works that were born in cafes and restaurants

Café culture has long been associated with life in France but in many countries, cafés are more than places to have a libation and socialize. They have been the birthplace of major iconic cultural works.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Nyoman Erawan: Painting in the time of pandemic

The pandemic is no match for Balinese artist Nyoman Erawan's restless mind and his incessant urge to explore new possibilities.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

UK government warns museums not to remove statues over protests

The British government has warned a number of cultural institutions that their public funding could be called into question should they remove statues or other objects that have become the focus of protests or complaints.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Arts figures defend J.K. Rowling in transgender rights row

Prominent figures in the British arts including novelist Ian McEwan and playwright Sir Tom Stoppard have signed a letter denouncing "hate speech" against "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling over her comments on transgender rights.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

A path forward for Indonesian art during troubled times: Dialogue with Andonowati

The infrastructure in Indonesia is far from ideal for the development of art, says Indonesian art visionary Aan Andonowati, but that has not deterred her from doing what she can to create a bright future of art in the country.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Video reunions, closed cemeteries: Virus upends Korean festival

Chuseok, which runs from Wednesday to Friday, is one of the two biggest festivals of the Korean year, and traditionally a time for family gatherings and ancestral rituals, with millions of people heading to their home towns and the countryside. But this year will be starkly different as authorities urge the public to stay home to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

French boy thrown from London's Tate Gallery can now stand again

The French boy who was thrown from the roof of London's Tate Gallery more than a year ago can now stand unaided though he had yet to regain his balance.

4 years ago