Ever since it was first announced about one year ago, anticipation has been running extremely high for the planned opening of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN) in Jakarta this year. And not just amongst Indonesian art aficionados – the Guardian placed it on their list of the top 10 museum openings of 2017 while CNN named it one of the year’s most anticipated openings.
And it’s not surprising, considering Museum MACAN will be Jakarta and Indonesia’s very first contemporary and modern art museum, promising to usher in a new era for the archipelago’s burgeoning art scene. We’ll finally get to find out if the museum can live up to all the hype when it officially opens to the public in November.
The opening is scheduled to coincide with the two of Indonesia’s biggest art events – The Jakarta Biennale, which opens on November 4, and Biennale Jogja, which opens on November 2 in Yogyakarta.
The museum was previously scheduled to open earlier in 2017, but according to a press release, “delays in the construction of the landmark multi-purpose building in which the museum will be located” caused the opening to be pushed back. However, the release noted that construction is “at an advanced stage, and remaining work consists mainly of finishing touches to the interior and ongoing tests to its systems.”
To tide art enthusiasts over until the grand opening, the museum is launching a program called MACAN First Sight, a series of pop-up weekend performances and lectures beginning in March 2017 that will provide the public with opportunities to preview the museum.
“We look forward to welcoming the public for a sneak peek of Museum MACAN beginning in March, when we will launch a series of live performances by some of the most exciting contemporary artists working today, and provide opportunities for education with lectures by leading artists and scholars,” said Aaron Seeto, Museum MACAN’s director in the release.
When the museum officially opens in November, the inaugural exhibition will bring together approximately 90 significant works drawn from founder Haryanto Adikoesoemo’s private collection of over 800 modern and contemporary artworks, collected over the past 25 years, including works from some of the most celebrated artists in Indonesia, Asia and the rest of the world including Raden Saleh, FX Harsono, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Ai Wei Wei and Jeff Koons.
The museum is scheduled to open in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, in a newly constructed 4,000-square-meter space designed by London-based firm Met Studio Design. It will feature about 2,000 square meters of exhibition galleries, including two areas specially reinforced for large-scale commissions of new work. The museum will also have a 500-square-meter indoor sculpture garden.
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