Jakarta: The Last Day
On the third day in Jakarta, it was our last day in Indonesia. The experience in Jakarta was quite different from Yogyakarta and Bandung. Jakarta is more focused on art galleries compared to art communities. There are more than 40 art galleries and museums of interest around Jakarta, but we only managed to visit galleries nearby due to time constraints. We only had time to visit one gallery on our last day, which was the MACAN Museum.
Museum MACAN
The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN) is an art museum in Jakarta. Museum MACAN is an institution that provides public access to significant and continuously evolving collections of modern and contemporary art from Indonesia and around the world. The museum features exhibition programs and active events within its 7,100 square meter facility, which includes education and conservation spaces.
Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles is a major exhibition dedicated to the internationally acclaimed artist Chiharu Shiota, based in Berlin, Germany. The exhibition features around one hundred works spanning from the 1990s to large-scale installation works, sculptures, videos, photos, paintings, and other related materials. This is the first opportunity presented to introduce visitors to Shiota’s artistic career, which spans approximately twenty-five years comprehensively.
After 10 days in Indonesia, I have observed the way Indonesian society dignifies the homeland art. They have diverse artistic styles. This is because Indonesia is more renowned for its strong and culturally diverse society, where modern art injections provide integration of religion, tradition, influences from external cultures, and other strong social values. Indonesian social culture is heavily influenced by its colonizers such as the Portuguese and Dutch. Therefore, we can see that both of these cultures have been widely embraced in Indonesian social life, which is evident in architecture and so forth. Phenomena rooted in the past have evolved into one of the most fascinating phases in Indonesian art and have become an extraordinary achievement in the rich art history of this country. Currently, the list of Indonesian artists featured is populated by some of the most experimental and innovative artists in the world of modern and classical fine arts. This makes the art community in Indonesia very vibrant, energetic, and lively.
The 10-day trip has been very inspiring for me and my fellow artists to continue being consistent as full-time painters, whether individually or in groups, and to improve our work more innovatively in the future. I humbly want to express my gratitude to MEA Management, HOM Art Trans, CIMB Foundation, and all friends and crew involved throughout the trip to Indonesia. I am delighted that we made the trip together. You guys are so great and fun to be with.
