REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BRUSSELS -- Belgian King Philippe Léopold Louis Marie and Queen Mathilde expressed their enthusiasm to view hundreds of ancient artifacts, from different parts of Indonesia, which were displayed at the Europalia Arts Festival Indonesia in Brussels.
King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, who were accompanied by Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla and spouse Mufidah Kalla, eagerly observed the artifacts and listened to a historian, who provided details on every artefact that was being displayed.
The Belgian monarchs made it a point to observe the detailed inscriptions written on the bottom left side of each artifact.
Some of the ancient artifacts displayed were made of wood, bronze, gold, silver, and stones from North Sumatra, South Sulawesi, Java, NTT, NTB, Sulawesi, Borneo, and Papua.
After observing the artifacts, the king and the queen, as well as Kalla and around 1 thousand audiences, watched the traditional performances, consisting of Saman Dance, Losari Mask Dance, and Voice of Papua.
The Europalia Arts Festival Indonesia will be held from Oct 10, 2017, to Jan 21, 2018.
During the festival, Indonesia as the guest country, will involve more than 486 Indonesian artists and culturists for the implementation of 226 works and programs. The works include 69 dance and theater shows, 71 music performances, 36 works of literature, 38 films, and 14 exhibitions. The events will be held in several cities in Belgium and six other European countries, namely the Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, France, and Poland.