Benyamin Sueb Archives Exhibition Present At National Awakening Museum

Benjamin Sueb (doc. Irama Nusantara)

JAKARTA - Benjamin Sueb is a big name in the modern Indonesian music industry. His name has been known since the late 1950s through theio Boys music group (later known as Melodi Ria) led by Rachman Abdullah.

Until now, Benjamin Sueb's works are still very relevant to be enjoyed and understood by new music lovers. Several tributes were also displayed in memory of the Betawi artist.

The Irama Nusantara Foundation, which focuses on filing Indonesia's popular digital music, collaborates with the Benjamin Suaeb Foundation to hold a Biang Kerok; Archives Exhibition Benjamin Suaeb as an attempt to collect Benjamin Sueb's own works and archives.

Meanwhile, the exhibition will be held at the National Awakening Museum, Senen, Central Jakarta, from June 2 to July 14. This exhibition is part of the collaboration between Irama Nusantara and the National Awakening Museum, since the inauguration of the Irama Room at Muskitnas as a place for Indonesia's popular digital music filing activities.

That way, the public can not only access various collections of Indonesian music archives through the merannusantara.org website, but can also go directly to the Irama Room and Exhibition Room to access it more clearly.

Over the past 10 years, Irama Nusantara has worked intensively to collect digital archives for Indonesia's popular music releases. So far, 8,000 releases have been collected, but access is still centered on online format through our website. We are very grateful that Irama Nusantara can realize its dream of opening access to archives that we have collected physically so that it can be directly accessed by the public," said Dian Onno as Chair of the Irama Nusantara Foundation in a statement, Thursday, June 6.

This exhibition is expected to attract people's interest in Indonesia's popular music creations, and also encourage the public's active participation in sharing archives and memorabilia of Indonesian music they have.

Exhibition Biang Kerok; Archives Exhibition Benjamin Suaeb is the first step in the Irama Nusantara activation program at this National Awakening Museum. Various archives such as music releases, snippets of songs in films, photos, lyric sheets, and radio program recordings will be shown comprehensively and attractively.

Social and cultural relevance from Benjamin's various works creates personal attachment for the Indonesian people in general. Not a few memories of Bang Ben are well stored in the minds of the Indonesian people. It is hoped that this exhibition will become an effort from Irama Nusantara and the Benjamin Suaeb Foundation to overcome this problem," said Gerry Apriryan, Program Manager of Irama Nusantara.

Along with the opening of the exhibition, a talk show with the title, 'Gaya Betawi, Funky in Krimong!' will also be held. This event will explore how Bang Ben's influence on the popularity of traditional music styles iscambang throughout the country.

After talk show, the activity continued with a collaboration music performance from Mad Madmen with Amboro. This special performance format is a tribute to Benjamin Sueb by presenting Bang Ben's original song.

In addition, a series of similar activities will be present during this exhibition until July 14. Outside of talk shows and music performances, there will be film screenings, workshops, and programs to revive Benjamin Sueb's work.