VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

This year's National Batik Day was much more festive with Batik Fashion Show on the longest catwalk which won the Indonesian World Record Museum (MURI) award, as well as batik exhibitions in some places.

“At the opening ceremony, which is also the highlight of the National Batik Day event, it is enlivened with the Batik Street Fashion Show along Sudirman Street, starting exactly from the Senayan Roundabout and ending in front of the FX Mall. This activity will also be recorded by MURI as a Batik Fashion Show category with the Longest Catwalk in CFD at 600 meters," the Chief Executive of the 2022 National Batik Day, Nini Djan Faridz, said in a press conference here on Sunday.

In addition, a 450-meter-long batik cloth was laid out on the railing on the 2nd floor of the lobby at the mall in the Sudirman area.

General Chairperson of the Indonesian Batik Foundation (YBI)--the organization that initiated this activity-- Gita Pratama added that YBI had been awarded a license as a member of the UNESCO Non-Governmental Organization, in accordance with the global organization's program to participate in developing the vision and mission of the cultural program.

One of them was to hold a campaign which was spread through communities, batik lovers, and activities to promote batik clothing in Indonesia, Pratama said.

"YBI, through a series of National Batik Day events, aims to spread good news, spread new paradigms to the public, that batik is not only about formal activities, but batik can also be and is comfortable to wear in various situations including daily activities," she elaborated.

The series of National Batik Day events would continue until October 9, 2022.

Mall visitors in the Sudirman area who want  to add the best batiks to their collection could shop at the Batik Exhibition, in which 27 batik artisans are participating.

Meanwhile, on the same dates, October 2 to October 9, 2022, the foundation also organizes  an exhibition of their batik collections at Plaza Indonesia.

They also host a batik fashion show in a cafe in the afternoon.

The series of events for the 2022 National Batik Day will be concluded with a Batik Exhibition featuring 80 Batik Nitik collections at the Textile Museum (Art Museum), West Jakarta, starting October 12, 2022.

Batik Nitik is a collection of batik originating from Yogyakarta. At first glance, the Nitik batik motif resembles woven fabric, with one dominant color being brown, which means simplicity and honesty of the Javanese people.

The uniqueness of Batik Nitik is that it is the only written batik motif with a history and a different way of creating batik from others.

The canting (tool to make batik) used was split into 4, and the technique of how to make batik is by tapping, not dragging.

On the same occasion, Deputy President Director of Bank Mandiri Alexandra Askandar expected for the entire series of events on National Batik Day this time would spark people's enthusiasm to continue to preserve batik and adopt batik as a national identity.

"Hopefully this initiative can be a stimulant for partnership development efforts and cultural preservation, promoting the added value of the Indonesian economy and batik industry in the future," Askandar remarked. (Antaranews)