Old Town

 Offline Exhibition

 


What do you think if there is a statement that one of the must-visit tourist attractions in Jakarta? The old town area has always been one of the mandatory destinations for both local and foreign tourists, especially for tourists who are interested in the town history. Let's start by exploring the Jakarta Historical Museum.


 

The stairs to the second floor gave an interesting impression to me. Due to the building's authenticity, it is expected not to use high heels. Furthermore, when arrived on the 2nd floor of the Jakarta Historical Museum or better known as the Fatahillah Museum, my attention was immediately drawn to the painting on the top wall with a unique frame shape. The painting is divided into 3 large sections, with the center of the painting telling the story of King Solomon who was famous as a wise king. In the painting it is depicted that King Solomon ordered soldiers to cut a baby into two parts in order to find the baby's real mother.



On the other side of the room there are several large shelves that were once used to store files. The ornaments on the shelves look so lovely!



This collection called as room screen. This baroque style room screen was once used in the meeting hall of the Council of the Indies in Kasteel (castle) Batavia. It was made in the 18th century with exceptionally detailed carvings. On the upper part shows six coat of arms of cities where VOC resided, while one symbol in the middle is the symbol of the city Batavia. The middle part of the screen shows carving of a knight carrying an armor with Medusa’s head as decoration.



After visiting this museum several times, my attention has always been focused on the ornaments on the walls which are arranged very nicely apart from the fact that the ornaments themselves are unique with their respective carving details. The paintings on the walls of the Fatahillah Museum are no less interesting than other collections. One of the paintings on display in this museum is the painting of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa.


 

Miniature of New Holland Church

Made from black ambon timber (sonokeling), this miniature is a miniature of the New Holland Church (De Nieuwe Hollandse Kerk) that was built in 1733 – 1736 and destructed by earthquake in 1808. This church was located at the location of present Wayang Museum and a number of tombs of people who were buried in the church’s complex can still be seen inside Wayang Museum inner courtyard. This miniature was made in Batavia and part of the original collection of Jakarta Historical Museum.



The Hermes statue was made in the 18th century. Initially this statue was owned by German merchant who later presented the statue to the government of Batavia city. Initially, the original Hermes statue was placed in the Hamorni area as the symbol of the entrance to the Dutch territory.

 


What other collections are there in the Fatahillah Museum? The above pictures are some other collections in the Fatahillah Museum.



Due to the limited time, I merely visited Jakarta Historical Museum, Puppet Museum and Fine Arts and Ceramics Museum. Due to the pandemic, unfortunately, the Bank Indonesia Museum and the Bank Mandiri Museum are temporarily closed, when reopen these two museums are also mandatory for your wish list to go. Although both are bank museums, the two museums have very different atmospheres and are both very enjoyable. I closed my tour of Old Town by enjoying the afternoon at Cafe Batavia. Do not forget to visit this area when visiting Jakarta. The above photos are some collections of Puppet Museum and Fine Arts and Ceramics Museum.

It can be said that the development of the Jakarta city could be summarized in the museums located in the old town area. Even though I have been to this area several times, there are always new interesting things that I found on my visits.

 

For further information:

Jakarta Historical Museum

Jalan Taman Fatahillah No.1, Pinangsia, Kec. Taman Sari, Kota Jakarta Barat, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 11110

 

Social Media:

Website: www.museumjakarta.com

 

Puppet Museum

Jalan Pintu Besar Utara No.27 Pinangsia, RT.3/RW.6, Kota Tua, Kec. Taman Sari, Kota Jakarta Barat, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 11110

 

Social Media:

Website: www.mitramuseumjakarta.org/wayang

Instagram: wayangmuseum

 

Fine Arts and Ceramics Museum

Jl. Pos Kota No.2, RT.9/RW.7, Pinangsia, Kec. Taman Sari, Kota Jakarta Barat, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 11110

 

Social Media:

Website: www.mitramuseumjakarta.org

Instagram: museum_keramikjkt

 

Reference:
Personal impression and experience

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art Exhibition of National Collections - Menyigi Masa

Image
The Art Exhibition of National Collections Menyigi Masa National collections art exhibition is one of the main exhibition programme that initiated and held by Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Direktorat Jenderal Kebudayaan, and Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. This exhibition showed state artwork collections of artistic produced by Indonesian artists which is managed and collected by institution all around Indonesia. This exhibition was held with purpose to publish the artwork of state collections and showed the wealth and treasure of the Indonesia especially through the artworks. Furthermore, also gave a chance to the public to be able to appreciate, well informed about state collections, and also get closer to the important figures in the development of Indonesia art history. "Menyigi Masa Exhibition is a very early effort of examine - investigate, note, weed, and explained - the artworks which is collected in various state institution, which can be noted as st
Read more

Batik Peranakan

Image
Temporary Exhibition   “Chinese crossbreed community has an important role in the development of culture and batik industry in Indonesia, especially Java island. Historically the progress of the Chinese crossbreed community took place in stages so as to achieve a certain level of expertise and design choices. No wonder some of the batik products made by Chinese crossbreed batik entrepreneurs, known as Chinese Crossbreed Batik, are very well known for their smoothness, design, motifs and colors. For instance, batik products produced by batik companies Oey Soe Tjoen, The Tie Siet, Lie Boen Len, Tjoa Giok Tjiam and so on have become part of the important collections of various famous museums and collectors in Indonesia and abroad.” (William Kwan Hwie Liong)   Apart from the existence of batik as a cultural and industrial work that is spread in various countries, Indonesian batik is the only one that until now has gained international recognition. On October 2, 2009 Indonesian ba
Read more

National Gallery of Indonesia

Image
Permanent Exhibition     If we are talking about gallery, of course always there is National Gallery of Indonesia as my top of mind. There are permanent and temporary exhibition, which temporary exhibitions held packed with one full year schedule in here. Due to highly standard selection, it is always said really difficult to conduct the exhibition even to display the artwork. Based on data from the National Gallery of Indonesia website, the building which has a Dutch colonial architecture which was officially opened in 1999 has been used for a Special Dormitory for women. At present the National Gallery of Indonesia has around 1785 collections of artworks by Indonesian and foreign artists, including ; Raden Saleh, Hendra Gunawan, Affandi, S. Sudjojono, Basoeki Abdullah, Barli Sasmitawi Nata, Trubus, Popo Iskandar, Ahmad Sadali, Nashar, Soedarsono, Sunaryo, Amrus Natalsya, Hardi, Heri Dono, Dede Eri Supria, Ivan Sagita, FX. Harsono, Lucia Hartini, Irlantine Karnaya, Hendrawan K
Read more

Ulos, Hangoluan, & Tondi

Image
A Life Journey Through the Threads The role of textile in Batak society from the private collection of Mrs. Luhut Pandjaitan What are you thinking about when someone asked you about Ulos? Yes, generally of us will directly relating this traditional textile with Batak society. ‘Ulos, Hangoluan & Tondi’ is the Batak traditional textile exhibition, where Ulos textile will be always exist in every stage of life of Batak society. Hangoluan and Tondi itself means life and soul, related to this exhibition that Ulos traditional textile can’t be separated from life and soul of Batak society. This exhibition held for 14 days September 20 th to October 7 th , 2018 at Textile Museum in Jakarta. Sunday, September 30 th , 2018 around 3.30 PM I arrived for the first at Textile Museum. This exhibition displayed around 50 collections with each collection is not less than 50 years. Ulos has a symbolic function that always be present in every aspect of Batak society, starts from the birt
Read more

Kartun Ber(b)isik

Image
Face Jokes in the Body of Truth "Face Jokes in the Body of Truth." Poland Novelist, Joseph Conrad. Cartoonists in this Kartun Ber(b)isik exhibition tried to put that jokes face. The face of the jokes probably can be called as critic. While the body of truth itself is the actual problem of this country. Through this exhibition, they want to remind the critic tradition in cartoon. They tried to display appropriately as "nowadays" spirit with the whole very fast changing. They also want to persuade millennial generation to criticize politely as a member of civilized society. They also want to persuade us to remember that nation's progress has positive and negative impacts. For that we need a wise way to through it. Conveying in the cartoon language may not be easy. As daily Kompas cartoonist GM Sudarta (deceased) said, sometimes the cartoon or caricature criticism less sharp. The sharp caricatures according to GM Sudarta is the caricatures that ma
Read more

Pantjoran Tea House

Image
Dedicated for tea lovers   PANTJORAN TEA HOUSE A Leaf of History “We built our tea house in the heart of old town Batavia (now Jakarta), the busiest trading port in Asia during the 17th – 18th century and the symbol of enterprise that nurtures the fighting spirit of Indonesia until today. In the capital of Indonesia that bustles with activity, we sought to provide a place of refuge for a man of any background to rejuvenate the soul.” – Pantjoran Tea House.   Today we will have a great tea journey with the peaceful ambience around one of main tourism destination in old town area. What will be pop up first in your top of mind when we talk about tea? Twinings or TWG? Neither the British nor Singaporean tea. There is no chamomile tea for today’s menu. Let’s try this Chinese traditional tea.   This building divided into two floors, the first floor there are tea ceremony table, tea shop gallery, and cashier spot with traditional drug store’s ornament. Move forward to the seco
Read more

Into The Future - The Future Has Arrived!

Image
Into The Future The Future Has Arrived! Yeayyy~~~! Today after I spent family time on my mother’s birthday lunch that postponed around one month, finally I have a spare time to do my me time. Even though almost a whole day was raining in Jakarta, I can’t back off my plan to go to Galeri Nasional Indonesia. I arrived around 4.15 PM at Galeri Nasional Indonesia and ready to pamper myself with beautiful artwork of Into The Future : The Future Has Arrived! collections. Due to this exhibition held on the main building of the gallery, so I thought I can had a huge expections of this exhibition. When the first time came to this exhibition, I saw the general introduction of the exhibition such as the whole exhibition schedule, the artists name and the title of their artworks then the introduction of the exhibition’s curators especially as following : The time called Future yesterday, has now arrived in the Present Day, and will be another Future hereafter. Amidst as era of tu
Read more

Prince Diponegoro’s Heirloom – Pamor Sang Pangeran

Image
Temporary Exhibition Prince Diponegoro (1785–1855), Sang Ratu Adil or ‘Just King’, was the eldest son of the King of Java, Sultan Hamengku Buwono III (reigned 1812-1814). Since he was young, Diponegoro was close to the lives of commoners and the disciples of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools). Starting from the prince’s anxiety regarding the condition of his environment, such as the disappearance of Javanese values and palace tradition due to the entry of European culture, Dutch interference in the internal affairs of the palace, tax collection that chokes people’s necks, until it reached its highest point when the Dutch planted stakes on the graves of Diponegoro’s ancestors in disdain for a road-building project, then the Java War broke out.   The Java War (1825-1830) witnessed how Diponegoro became a figure of war leader to be reckoned with. The Dutch made him their number one enemy because Diponegoro’s war tactics were able to make them upset and overwhelmed. The Java
Read more

Jakarta Biennale 2021

Image
Esok: Membangun Sejarah Bersama 21 Nov 2021 - 21 Jan 2022 In the midst of the current pandemic, offline exhibitions are becoming very rare and make art connoisseurs yearn to appreciate the exhibition in person. The atmosphere and wind at the exhibition site are still not present in virtual exhibitions. Being able to directly visit the 2021 Jakarta Biennale was a valuable experience for me.  So what is the Jakarta Biennale? From the archives : History of Jakarta Biennale The forerunner to the Jakarta Biennale was the Great Indonesian Painting Exhibition organised by the Jakarta Arts Council for the first time in 1968 at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta. After 1974, the Great Indonesian Painting Exhibition took the biennial format, held every two years. Venues : 1. National Awakening Museum (Stovia) 2. National Museum of Indonesia 3. Taman Menteng 4. Cikini Raya Human Rights and all its problems are the foundation of the 2021 Jakarta Biennale exhibition for a more humane TOMORROW! Talking a
Read more

Alam Ruang Manusia - Affandi Immersive

Image
Temporary Exhibition     After being stopped since the Covid-19 pandemic, the temporary exhibition of the National Gallery of Indonesia was finally back offline. This time, the National Gallery of Indonesia was presenting an immersive exhibition that highlights the artworks of Indonesian painting maestro, Affandi. Affandi is one of the world figures of modern painters in Indonesia that adheres to the pure expressionism, but at first Affandi’s career shows his artworks in photographic realist painting which means that his painting is like a picture taken from a camera. He is often referred to as the representation of modern Indonesian art in the international art scene. He works and exhibits around Bandung, Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Bali, as well as across continents by traveling around India, countries in Europe and America. He is actively involved in international prestigious art events such as the Sao Paolo Biennale, Venice Biennale, and World Expo '70 Osaka. His unique
Read more