Batik from Java - A Window into the Collection

An Exhibition of the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden 
March 30 to November 14, 2010 

Batik is generally known as one of the great textile traditions of the world. In Indonesia and especially on the island of Java, it is more than “only” a highly developed textile dying technique. For the Javanese, Batiks are of high cultural value. The honoring of the Batik as a world cultural heritage serves to preserve the tradition which today is in danger. Through appropriate measures – for example a popularization on a national and international level – interest in the textile art is hoped to be reinvigorated.

The Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden presents nine selected hand-made Batiks from its collection in a small exhibition in the Japanische Palais. The Batiks, which are exhibited, were created between 1860 and 1945. Two extraordinarily beautiful works were purchased last year from an Indonesian private collection. Batik is an important form of expression in Javanese culture. Fabrics bear motifs of complex symbolic meanings that are visual expressions of Javanese conviction, ethics and social order. Whereas earlier every woman on the island of Java was able to do batik, knowledge on this form of textile tradition is regressing. More and more fabrics are circulating that were printed mechanically with patterns imitating the old. The real Batik is no factory work. It is an art work made by hand; it is one of a kind. On Java, Batik belongs – next to gamelan music, acting and poetry - to the high arts and is one of the main forms of expressions of men.