ken_soepangkat(Disclaimer: when this blog is posted, Jakarta and Bali are under Emergency PPKM (Covid restrictions), making any museum including Museum Macan is temporary closed)
Not many children are excited for a museum visit. But since the first time we visited Museum Macan, museum stereotype of being boring certainly not being adopted by this one.
Don’t expect to have an encounter with an actual macan here, as MACAN stands for The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara.
Located at Wisma AKR, West Jakarta, you can easily spot the building from Kebon Jeruk toll exit. Leave your backpack, food and beverages at the storage counter. But if you carry a small bag, you can still take it inside the museum. No camera is allowed but camera phone is permitted but turn off your flashlight when you want to take any pictures inside.
Since its opening in 2017, we have visited several of Museum Macan’s exhibition, and we enjoy every one of them. We are not artsy people, but we visit most of Museum Macan’s exhibitions, as each of them offers a unique collection and theme of arts. A good experience for children to visit as well, as they always have a separate art playroom for children with different theme in each of exhibition.
When it opens again, we certainly will come back!
Art Turns, World Turns
4 November 2017 – 18 March 2018
The first exhibition open for public at Museum Macan with the title “Art Turns, World Turns” featuring 90 art works from Indonesian and international artists. Most memorable for its installation of Infinity Mirrored Room, where the selfie-craved people waiting in long lines just for a short 15 to 30 seconds of step into the infinity room. Here yoou can feel the sense of endlessness darkness surrounded by colorful installation of mirrors, lights, and of course, taking selfies.
Yayoi Kusama: Life is The Heart of a Rainbow
12 May – 9 September 2018
This would be our favorite exhibition so far. Why? Because it’s so colorful and mind boggling (in a good way). Just like Museum Macan promotes Yayoi Kusama’s works where each work opens up an opportunity for the viewers to enter a world of imaginations.
This exhibition includes 130 works created by the artist in over 70 years.
As quoted from Museum Macan’s Instagram page, “Born in Japan, Yayoi Kusama is one of the most widely recognized artists in the world. Her works have been exhibited across the world, comprising various media including installations, paintings and sculptures.”
Step into the world of the most imaginative polkadots, colors and shapes. We can’t help the fell of being lifted and taken back to our innocent childhood days.
A must visit to “Obliteration Room” in which Kusama represents the letting go of ego and identity in a room. This room is filled with furnitures and ornaments all in white. Before you step into this room, the museum staff will give you a sheet full of stickers in colorful dots, and you can put these stickers anywhere inside the room.
Here, if you’re not a child, you can reach to your inner child and go crazy with the stickers. Before long, you will run out of stickers. But because the museum wasn’t that busy when we were there, the staff was so kind to give us one more sheet of stickers!
Dunia Dalam Berita
1 May – 21 July 2019
This time it exhibits 10 contemporary artists active from the mid90s to mid2000s, a significant time for the democratization of media in Indonesia.
This time, the exhibition feels a little too grown up with children, as several of the works are sensitive and only can be viewed by people 18+. In the 90s, Indonesia was in democratic turmoil, thus some of the works can only be understood by mature people.
Xu Bing: Thought and Method
31 August 2019 – 12 January 2020
Fist in South East Asia, a major solo exhibition from the artists Xu Bing, a collaboration between UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (China) and Museum Macan.
One of Xu Bing’s most iconic works is “Book from the Sky” which took four years to finish from 1987 to 1991. This work is comprised of 4,000 nonsense Chinese characters hand-carved and turned into one. Instead of its beautiful complexity, it shows a totally incomprehensible signs.
The exhibition also features “Book from the Ground”, a counterpoint to “Book from the Sky”, which shows a universal language where personal computer and internet become increasingly integrated into our daily life. Where we grow accustomed to reading symbols, logos, emojis and icons.
Take a look at “Honor and Splendor”, made from 660,000 cigarettes which raises important questions about health and labor.
Stop and spend some time at “Square Word Calligraphy”, a writing system invented by Xu Bing, which arranges alphabetic letters in square formats resembling Chinese characters. Ask the museum staff to help you write some words in the paper that already provided by the museum. Relax and take your time to write. Put the brush tip inside the bowl filled with water, but careful not to get it too soaked.
