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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

New York's Met Opera to host virtual concert series

Several of opera's biggest stars beamed in from around the world on Saturday to announce the Metropolitan Opera's latest virtual initiative amid the coronavirus outbreak.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Up for grabs: Tokyo art exhibit invites theft

The Tokyo art exhibit opened to enthusiastic visitors, but many of those circulating weren't just there to soak in some culture -- they were casing the joint for a midnight raid.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Special edition ARTJOG:RESILIENCE to run from August to October

A special edition of ARTJOG will be presented in the form of ARTJOG: RESILIENCE from Aug. 8 to Oct. 10.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Christie's online sale fetches $421 million despite virus pandemic

Roy Lichtenstein's "Nude with Joyous Painting" was the big seller as a Christie's hybrid sale fetched an impressive $421 million Friday.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Turkey turns Hagia Sophia back into a mosque

Turkish President announced that the Hagia Sophia would be reopened for Muslim worship as a mosque, sparking fury in the Christian community and neighboring Greece.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

After UK lockdown delay, sculptor Anish Kapoor exhibits at Walpole's mansion

With Britain's coronavirus lockdown eased, sculptor Anish Kapoor can finally exhibit his work at Houghton Hall.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Changes to Istanbul's Hagia Sophia could trigger heritage review: UNESCO

UNESCO must be notified of any change in the status of Istanbul's sixth-century Hagia Sophia museum and the changes may have to be reviewed by its World Heritage committee, the United Nation's cultural body said on Thursday.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Macron gives blessing to recreate Notre-Dame's gothic spire

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday gave his blessing to a faithful reconstruction of the spire of the fire-damaged Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, in a change of heart after previously calling for a "contemporary" touch.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Melania Trump statue burned in Slovenia

The US artist behind a wooden statue of Melania Trump in Slovenia said Thursday that he was mulling an "artistic response" after his work was burned down at the weekend.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Parisian street artist accused of rape, sex assault

French authorities have opened an investigation into Parisian street artist Wilfrid A, known for his uplifting graffiti, after almost 30 women filed complaints accusing him of rape and sexual assault, prosecutors told AFP on Wednesday.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

National Gallery becomes first major London museum to reopen

Britain's National Gallery reopens on Wednesday, with masks recommended and social distancing and advance booking mandatory, as the country continues to emerge from three months of coronavirus lockdown.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Lockdown arts magazine to help beleaguered creatives

Vivienne Westwood and Wolfgang Tillmans are among 100 artists who have contributed art and articles to a new magazine LIMBO created especially to help colleagues who are out of work and to capture the world during lockdown. 

5 years ago
Art & Culture

As museums reopen across the world, are people ready to go back to cultural institutions?

As museums and galleries are emerging from their coronavirus lockdowns, most are still puzzling over how to reconfigure their spaces in line with new health and safety regulations. 

5 years ago
Art & Culture

A virtual tour of Jakarta, the big melting pot of cultures

The guide explained how Jakarta was a melting pot of many cultures.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Five Jakarta museums reopen to public

Five museums under the Education and Culture Ministry in Jakarta have started welcoming visitors again.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Hong Kong Tiananmen museum turns to digitalization after new law

A Hong Kong museum chronicling the crackdown by Chinese troops on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square is raising funds to digitalize its collection as concerns over a new national security law create uncertainty over its future.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Virtual fashion exhibition aims to 'hack' boundaries

The exhibition is about exceeding one's limit and turning problems into strengths.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Teater Koma's 'Sampek Engtay' rescheduled to 2021

“Considering the current situation, we’d like to apologize that our performance has had to be postponed,” said Teater Koma’s manager, Ratna Riantiarno, on the troupe’s Instagram account.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

'Dream Big' from home: Christie's exhibits monumental sculpture online

Despite current travel restrictions, art lovers can discover more than 50 monumental sculptures scattered around the globe in Christie's new selling exhibition.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

In Lebanon, single-concert festival serenades empty ruins

A philharmonic orchestra performed to spectator-free Roman ruins in east Lebanon Sunday, after a top summer festival downsized to a single concert in a year of economic meltdown and pandemic.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Russian church leader says calls to turn Hagia Sophia into mosque threaten Christianity

Patriarch Kirill, the leader of Russia's Orthodox Church, said on Monday that calls to convert Istanbul's Hagia Sophia into a mosque posed a threat to Christianity.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Britain to give $2 billion to virus-hit culture sector

Britain will spend nearly $2 billion to help theaters, art galleries and other cultural institutions survive the coronavirus crisis.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Turner Prize 2020 awards ten British artists with £10,000 grants

While this year's Turner Prize was canceled in May in reaction to the pandemic, Tate Britain announced that it will be splitting a £100,000 ($123,000) fund for the prestigious award into ten Turner Bursaries.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

In Canada, art lovers head to drive-in for safe Van Gogh show

While some museums have had to cancel or postpone long-planned exhibits because of the coronavirus, organizers of a Van Gogh show in Toronto had a novel idea: offering art lovers a drive-in option.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Fans gather for final showings at Thailand's much-loved La Scala theater

Donning masks and observing social-distancing practices, movie and theater fans on Saturday bid a final farewell to Thailand's La Scala theater in Bangkok, which is set to close its doors in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Denmark's Little Mermaid vandalized

The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, the city's most famous monument, was vandalized Friday but police and commentators were puzzled as to who might have done it and what their message really is.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Turkey's Erdogan rejects criticism over Hagia Sophia landmark

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday rejected criticism over his willingness to convert Istanbul's famed Hagia Sophia landmark into a mosque despite international and domestic concern.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

New York graffiti artists showcased in French chateau

When New York graffiti artists spray painted their colorful and subversive work on subways in the 1980s, it was an illegal activity. Three decades later, their work is on show in sixteenth century manor in Marseille.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

More scarce than opening-night tickets: Insurance to back Broadway shows

As they reel from canceled productions and shuttered theaters, the shows that give Broadway its bright lights and draw millions of tourists to New York are facing a new obstacle to reopening: lack of pandemic insurance.

5 years ago
Art & Culture

Uffizi masterpieces show Black culture's role in the Renaissance

Italy's Uffizi gallery said on Thursday it was planning to pick out nine of its masterpieces for a project to highlight the part that Black people and culture played in the Renaissance.

5 years ago