On my first day visiting Jakarta, my Youtuber cousin took me and Jik to Museum MACAN (Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara).
Museum visits were never part of our lives, nor a shared activity, while growing up in Jakarta. Roadside eating, destination-less driving, movie nights, sleepovers, even impromptu road trips, yes – but never museum visits. So we both were pretty stocked when he suggested a pit stop at Museum MACAN before an evening of Indonesian street food binge-ing.
Museum MACAN Jakarta
Museum MACAN occupied multiple floors of an office building in West Jakarta, around 30mins away from the SCBD. The ticket cost AUD7 (IDR 70k) per person, and with that sorted in advance (paid by the Youtuber cousin), the three of us went to the museum.
Just so you know, Museum MACAN is known locally as an Instagramable museum by Indo-Netizen. Because of that, I came prepared with a bulky camera, only to be told that camera wasn’t allowed. Why though? I don’t get it when people make unreasonable rules (yes, I am still salty about this).
Somewhere, Elsewhere, Nowhere in MACAN
The current featured exhibition in Museum MACAN is called Somewhere, Elsewhere, Nowhere by a Filipino-Australian husband and wife, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan. Within the collection, my absolute favourite was In-Habit: Project Another Country (Here, There, Everywhere). It was a miniature city/town made entirely out of card box.
As with all things Contemporary, appreciation can be subjective, and the same goes during my visit to Museum MACAN. Some of the Contemporary “arts” made me wonder how some were considered arts, BUT I fully acknowledge it’s more of my untrained art-brain shortcomings than anything else.
Indonesia Paintings by Indonesians
On the contrary, the other part of Museum MACAN featured beautiful paintings by Indonesian painters. Some were classic, some were abstracts, some were contemporary, and all were thought-provoking. Kudos to the museum curator.
Strolling from one painting to another, I recalled a section from Keep Going by Austin Kleon I coincidently read the night before, of Peter Clothier’s One Hour/One Painting. Clothier, an art critique, encourages us to enjoy art in a much slower phase, dubbed as Slow Looking: The Art of Looking At Art.
Though I didn’t have the luxury of time that day, I did force myself to spend a bit more minutes at some and skip a lot more – trying to take in the arts in different ways. It was a nice short experiment – something I’d like to try again when time permits.
Shop at MACAN
Now, the section Fafa would argue is my sole reason for visiting museums: the gift shop.
The gift shop in Museum MACAN, located near the entrance with an open store concept, offers plenty of locally made knick-knacks, from stickers to tote bags and dinnerware.
We almost bought matching Indonesia-made watches, Pala Nusantara, but I bailed at the last minute. Though I loved the concept (Pala Nusantara watches are made of recycled material and wood), I wasn’t sure whether I’d use it as much as I’d like to.
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Btw, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan’s Somewhere, Elsewhere, Nowhere ends in October 2023, but Museum MACAN is worth visiting anytime and many times over.
Museum MACAN address: AKR Tower Level M, Jl. Panjang No.5, Jakarta Barat, Indonesia. Opening hours: 10 AM-6 PM daily except Monday.
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