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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.

4 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”.

6 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

Artist Series: Artful masks enter pandemic fray

Masks featuring artwork of Indonesia's best visual artists are a creative way to cope with this crisis while bringing the arts to the public.

4 years ago
Art & Culture

Street art thrives in Sao Paulo despite pandemic

The Brazilian mega-city is known as a world street-art capital, and not even the coronavirus pandemic has stopped graffiti painters.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Arts leaders urge Europe to act on Polish LGBT+ rights

Leading arts figures including director Pedro Almodovar and writer Margaret Atwood have called on Europe to intervene on behalf of LGBT+ people in Poland, saying their rights are being "blatantly violated".

5 years ago
Art & Culture

How Indonesia's most innovative filmmakers portrayed society and culture through 70 years

The early films of the Perfini company are often seen as providing a foundation for a “national cinema”. However, these films are also a form of “critical national cinema”, which highlight and engage with negative aspects of the new nation.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

UOB Indonesia announces Painting of the Year competition

The annual UOB Painting of the Year competition is now open for submissions.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

New York's Museum of Modern Art to reopen August 27

New York's Museum of Modern Art will reopen its doors on August 27, following a five-month shutdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Buckingham Palace’s art collection on gallery display for first time

While Buckingham Palace is undergoing a £369 million refurbishment, multiple paintings from the Royal Collection that usually hang in the Picture Gallery will be brought together in a gallery exhibition for the first time.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Indian classical maestro Pandit Jasraj dies at 90

Music lovers in India have paid glowing tributes to the classical maestro Pandit Jasraj, who has died at the age of 90.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Contextualizing women’s issues in experiences, literature

Panelists highlighted that it was important for feminism to be contextualized within the framework of non-Western values

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Intersectional feminism, a window to women’s thoughts

Speakers talked about their experiences and hardships in pursuing careers in the male-dominated art industry.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

A life’s work shattered: Stained glass artist counts cost of Beirut blast

Two decades of Maya Husseini's work to restore stained glass windows destroyed in the Lebanese civil war was lost in an instant in the seismic port explosion in Beirut.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

'Sabdo Pandito Rakjat': A tribute to Ki Nartosabdo

A message of integrity underscores the tale of 'Sabdo Pandito Rakjat'.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

New York museums, galleries to reopen from Aug. 24

New York's museums, art galleries and other cultural institutions will be allowed to reopen starting August 24, state governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday after a five-month shutdown due to the coronavirus.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Manhood must wait: Virus delays South African circumcision rituals

Every June and December thousands of initiates between 15 and 17 years old spend at least three weeks secluded in the bush, where they are circumcised and taught to be responsible men. But this year, for the first time in living memory, the ritual has been called off because of the coronavirus.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Festival encourages youth to fight for human rights

Held from July 12 to Aug. 12, Humanity Youth Festival encouraged the youth to learn about impunity based on Human Rights violations.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Virus-hit Mexico City reopens museums, cinemas

Mexico is reopening museums and cinemas in the capital after months of lockdown, but face masks and social distancing are the new normal for culture vultures in a city still battling the coronavirus.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Speed painter creates upside-down portraits of founding fathers for Independence Day

Indonesian speed painter Eggy Yunaedi created portraits of founding fathers Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta at Rumah Sejarah Rengasdengklok (Rengasdengklok History House) in Karawang regency, West Java, on Wednesday.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Gen-Z ‘dalang’ loves tradition, embraces modernity

Dressed in dalang (puppeteer) attire, comprising loose lurik shirt, kain jarik (traditional Javanese cloth) and blangkon (traditional Javanese hat), Gibran then sat crossed-legged on the floor.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

No human pyramids in Mumbai's 'Lord Krishna' festival due to coronavirus

There were no human pyramids in Mumbai's Janmashtami festival celebrating Lord Krishna on Wednesday, which normally attracts thousands onto the streets, due to a surge in coronavirus in India, with more than 60,000 cases reported in 24 hours.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Gandhi's iconic glasses go on sale in UK

A "rare and important" pair of iconic glasses worn by Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi look set to sell for tens of thousands of pounds after a British auction house put them up for sale on Monday.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

As Korean content goes global, cultural sensitivity becomes key issue

When students from Uijeongbu High School parodied Ghana’s famous dancing pallbearers, South Korea-based Ghanaian television personality Sam Okyere took to social media to criticize the students for painting their faces brown.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

12 Indonesian documentary projects selected for Docs By The Sea 2020

The project teams will be given the opportunity to pitch their works in a one-on-one session with donors, broadcasters, distributors, film festivals and other industry practitioners in the international documentary scene on Aug. 26-28.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Desecrated: blast leaves old Beirut's heritage gems in ruins

Gems of the Beirut's heritage, including some of the region's most elegant Levantine villas with their triple-arch windows, were damaged beyond repair.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Yemen's UNESCO-listed Old Sanaa houses collapse in heavy rains

Houses in Yemen's UNESCO-listed Old City of Sanaa are collapsing under heavy rains, as months of floods and storms assail a country already reeling from war, food shortages and disease.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Australian underwater art museum opens at Great Barrier Reef

Created as a call to action for ocean conservation, the Museum of Underwater Art's exhibits are located at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park’s John Brewer Reef.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Beatboxing for Buddha: Japan monk's musical outreach

The unique musical experience is the work of Yogetsu Akasaka, a Japanese musician and formally trained Buddhist monk who has become a viral phenomenon with tracks marrying religious chanting with beatboxing.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Raphael's face reconstructed to solve tomb mystery

Art sleuths have created a 3D reconstruction of the face of Italian painter Raphael, solving an age-old mystery over his final resting place.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Artists' Camp Retrospective in Darwin celebrates Indonesian-Australian cultural ties

Not only does art provide practical and therapeutical benefits for isolated people in lockdown, it also creates opportunities to foster positive international cultural and political relations. 

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Globe-trotting muralist captures public imagination, one wall at a time

His murals may adorn walls around the world, but the Balinese muralist isn’t seeking fame.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

UK's Tate faces heat over racist mural in gallery restaurant

Britain's Tate museum said it was considering how to address "deeply problematic racist imagery" in a restaurant at one of its London galleries, as anti-racism campaigners called for the art to be removed or the restaurant relocated.

5 years ago