Read on to find out how this contemporary Indonesian artist shaped the ever-changing role of this hortus in his painting. From colonial testing ground to guardian of biodiversity.
Kebun Raya Bogor – from experimental garden to whistle blower
In 2020 the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (NMVW, National Museum of World Cultures) purchased a work by the Indonesian artist Zico Albaiquni. It depicts his vision of the famous Kebun Raya botanical garden in Bogor in fluorescent colours.
Kebun Raya was established in 1817 to cultivate plants, trees and crops, some from other countries, and to investigate whether they could be grown and economically exploited on Java.
The garden was thus at the basis of the ecological devastation caused by the large-scale construction of plantations, not only on Java but also Sumatra and Kalimantan.
In 1817 Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt founded the Bogor Botanical Garden. The garden is situated in today’s huge city of Bogor in Java and is the oldest botanical garden in Southeast Asia.
The dominant mountain climate made it extremely suitable for growing all kinds of species of plants and trees
The garden’s objective was partly to grow plants, but also to do research on how crops like coffee, rubber and cinchona grow best and produce the best possible yield.
So the experimental garden was important for the colonial project.