The Journal

New Year’s Eve with Daniel Sahuleka at Sheraton Yogyakarta 12/31/2010 - Eka Wahyu (© Eka Wahyu) With his hits Don't Sleep Away This Night and You Make My World So Colourful, the world famous Indonesian-born Dutch singer Daniel Sahuleka will live up the New Years eve party in Jogjakarta. Titled Recovery of Merapi, the concert will be held in Mataram Grand Ballroom Sheraton Mustika Yogyakarta Resort and Spa tonight (31/12) starts at 8 PM of local time. About 10 songs and hits like I Adore You, If I Didn't, and Tiada Lagi Cinta will be performed to welcome the new year. Through this charity concert the Sheraton and Daniel's management will also try to gain fund to help the victims of Merapi eruption by selling merchands, DVDs from Daniel's Accoustic Live Concert at Holland album, and also an auction, an accoustic guitar signed by Daniel Sahuleka will be offered to public. According to Johnny William Maukar, Daniel's manager, at first the concept of th

Art Exhibition Coloring a Century of Muhammadiyah 6/20/2010 - Eka Wahyu Commemorating ‘1 Abad Muktamar Muhammadiyah 2010 – A Century of Muhammadiyah Organization Congress’, a group of artists will held an Islamic visual art exhibition titled ‘Seni Rupa Islam – Islamic Visual Arts’. This exhibition will take place at two venues, the Student Center of Jogjakarta Muhammadiyah University (July 2 - 9) and at Posnya Seni Godod (July 1 - 16). According to Godod Sutejo, one of the artists, the exhibition will display paintings and sculptures from about 30 wellknown artists from Jogjakarta and surroundings such as Syaiful Adnan, Edy Sunarso, Amry Yahya, Nasirun, Syahrizal Koto, Tulus Warsito, and Agus Kamal. By the exhibition, the artists would like to express their gratitude to Muhammadiyah for supporting them all the time and for Islamic culture for being inspiration of their life and works. “Islam, especially Muhammadiyah as one of two biggest moslem organizations in Indonesia hav

Kebon’s Hand-Painted Batik Revive after the Quake 6/17/2010 - Eka Wahyu (© Eka Wahyu) Kebon Village in Bayat, Klaten, Central Java, is one of the centers of traditional batik painters that use natural dye. Before the earthquake shook Jogjakarta and Central Java in 2006, some of this village’s batik painters were laborers in famous batik enterprises in Jogjakarta and Solo. However, after the earthquake, most of them returned to their village and worked only when there were orders from wholesalers. Recognizing the potential of Kebon Village, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) with the support of Java Reconstrustion Fund (JRF), currently extends assistances to the 5 groups in hand-painted batik sector, which consisted of 169 batik painters through a recovery for micro and small enterprises program that have been ran for 4 years since the earthquake. (© Eka Wahyu) Before the assistance program, the traditional batik painters from Kebon Village only

Mexico and Indonesia Look at Each Other Through Lenses 6/15/2010 - Eka Wahyu This June, The Embassy of Mexico in Indonesia promotes third dialogue of Mexican and Indonesian artists. As part of the International Women's Day commemoration, the Embassy of Mexico and Ministry of Culture and Tourism join their efforts to display a dialogue between women photographers from both countries. Photographers Marcela Taboada from Mexico and Desiree Harahap from Indonesia gather in 'Saling Menatap [Looking at Each Other]' Photographs Exhibition held at Jogja Gallery, Jl. Pekapalan No 7, Alun-Alun Utara, Yogyakarta, from June 14 to June 27, 2010 and display about 70 photographs of their works. Marcela Taboada, from Mexico received a scholarship from the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and for two months she traveled to Java, Sumatra and Bali, where, as she said, "began to photograph Indonesia with her soul". The people, their culture and traditions, th

The History of International Graphic Works at Sangkring Art Space Jogjakarta 6/14/2010 - Eka Wahyu                                        Enjoying two of George Segal's works (Copyright: Eka Wahyu) On the occasion of the celebrations for the Italian National Day (June 2nd), the Embassy of Italy to Indonesia and the Italian Institute of Culture Jakarta, with the support of the Italian Trade Commission and Biasa Artspace, present to the Indonesian public the graphic art exhibition: “THE DOUBLEFOLD DREAM OF ART: 2RC BETWEEN THE ARTIST AND ARTIFICER - AN ALL ITALIAN EXPERIENCE”, curated by art critic Prof. Achille Bonito Oliva. Different works were displayed at three separate art spaces: the Italian and International historical artists were presented at Galeri Nasional Indonesia; the Avanguardia at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, the American and British artists at Sangkring Art Space, for a total of 145 graphic works - etchings, aquatints, lithographs, embossings - and 8 co

A Journey to Classical Music through Harp and Saxophone Recital 5/19/2010 - Eka Wahyu (Copyright: Eka Wahyu) It was a ‘journey’ which brought by Lavinia Meijer & Aurelia Saxophone Quartet to the audiences in a stunning concert on last Wednesday night (18/5). Performing not less than seven compositions from 1903’s up to now, Lavinia Meijer & Aurelia Saxophone Quartet amazed the audiences that crowded up the auditorium of the Faculty of Medicine of Gadjah Mada University, Jogjakarta. To satisfy the audiences that did not leave the concert even after the show end, both Lavinia Meijer and Aurelia Saxophone Quartet finally played five other compositions in solo and ensemble performances. Lavinia Meijer, a well-known Dutch harpist of Korean descent, was so fascinating at the show. With the work of "Danses - Dance Sacrée & Danse Profane" by Debussy in 1903, and solo harp arrangement from Jacques Ibert, "Six Pieces", as well as