1st palapa exhibition report
PALAPA EXHIBITION
Palapa Exhibition was held in a prestigious Bargehouse, OXO Tower Wharf in London for three days.
From the 4th to the 6th October 2013. Bargehouse is located at the heart of London Southbank area
where the arts and cultures resonance vibrantly. Bargehouse is a strategic place to hold creative
industry exhibition as it is truly located at the London triangle: the parliament area, the City of
London, and the London Southbank. More interestingly Palapa Exhibition is the very first Indonesian
creative industry exhibition to be hold in international arena showcasing a fusion of Indonesian
Culture with the modern tradition. The products exhibited were chosen carefully by out prestigious
board of International curators from Japan, USA, UK, and Indonesia.
The total counted visitors that came to the exhibition is 537 visitors, varying from local students,
artists, families, tourists, Indonesian residence in the UK, local governmental officers, and activists.
Making it more interesting, in average each
visitor spent at least around 1 hour inside the
exhibition, showing the high level of
engagement of the visitors. We received
numerous numbers of positive responses and
they are keen to come again for the next
Palapa exhibition.
Palapa Exhibition was not simply built as a
normal exhibition. With the title of “Emerging
Indonesia”, Palapa Exhibition was presented in
a
whole package of Indonesia, symbolising the new Indonesia that has emerged as one of the country
that is ready for industrial & economic revolution. There are three floors of the Palapa Exhibition
with a progression of theme about Indonesia.
At the ground floor, visitors were welcomed and their photos were taken in front of a backdrop with
the logos of the two big sponsors. Albert Arron Pramono, Palapa president and Harry R.J Kandou, the
Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Republic of Indonesia in London gave a speech to officially
open the exhibition on the 4th October 2013. The opening ceremony was attended by many key
players of the creative industry in London who are eager to expand their horizon and perspective
about Indonesia. On the ground floor, audience was introduced with the summary of what is the
ideology behind Palapa Project.
From the conceptual ground floor, the audience was bought to a taste of Indonesia on the first floor.
There were three main rooms in the first floor; cinematic experience, workshop room and seminar
room. An Indonesian short movie, Epic Java and video from sponsors were played in the cinematic
experience room. Epic Java is created by one of the Indonesian emerging talent, Embara Films. It
visualises the Java experience from the culture to the breathtaking natural panorama of Java.
On the next door, we presented a hands‐on experience of Indonesia through puppet show (wayang)
and traditional houses workshops. We truly want to let the British and international audience to feel
and experience Indonesia and know more about Indonesian Culture. For the Wayang Shadow
puppet show, we personally introduced Indonesian wayang in a British way to show how actually we
can integrate our culture into the British local wisdom. These approaches have been proven to be a
resounding success.
Last but not least on the first floor, there is a seminar room where talks were given by our top
international curators, Bridget Fleming from the Harper’s Bazaar USA, and Freyja Sewell, a
celebrated British furniture designer. They were giving masterclass about their experience in the
creative industry. Moreover Lancaster University also gave a special masterclass on
entrepreneurships & business start‐up for the Palapa visitors. The first floor was build by our
conceptual team to introduce Indonesia as a whole vibrant country to the international visitors.
The second floor, the focus of our Palapa Exhibition, was used as the main exhibition room for the 30
Palapa products. There were three rooms and each room displayed 10 products based on the score
given by the curators. These 30 best products have been selected carefully by our panel of 15
International curators. The arrangement of only putting 30 best products on a spacious floor was to
let the audience flow and interact well with the exhibited products. Some of the 30 best products
winners and few entrepreneurship students from ITB, one of the best Indonesian university, came all
the way from Indonesia to interact well with the Palapa visitors, to present Indonesian beyond just
the surface, during the exhibition.
Here are some of the photos of the 30 best products from the Palapa Competition that were
displayed in London.
PALAPA NETWORKING NIGHT
Overall, Palapa Exhibition 2013 was a resounding success with overwhelming positive responses. In
addition to the Palapa Exhibition on the Bargehouse, Palapa Project truly was brought further into a
Indo‐UK Networking session. This Networking night, which is the main event of the Palapa
Exhibition, was officially hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia. On the 5th October
2013 at the Indonesian Embassy n London. For the very first time, an Indonesia‐UK Networking Night
to be hosted officially where Indonesian foods were also served.
With the aim to truly create business connections and Indo‐UK friendship we invited many British
and Indonesian entrepreneurs to meet up together on this Networking Night. Some of the Palapa
winners came to the networking night as well to showcase their products. The Networking Night
received overwhelming positive responses many Creative entrepreneurs based in London and
Indonesia, such as a group of entrepreneurs from Indonesia, top London architects, UK
Entrepreneurs society president, designers, and Importers, bank official, also government officials,
and many more.
With the ratio 1‐to‐1 between Indonesian and British entrepreneurs, the networking night truly has
created a very potential and conductive networking environment. Hopefully by this networking
night, many potential business relationships are established and the International view upon
Indonesia will change positively.
PALAPA LONDON PUBLICATION
PALAPA PUBLICATIONS
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