Otemba Confronting the Past

In Otemba, the 17th-century Japanese-Dutch Cornelia van Nijenrode comes to life, straight from her painting frame in the Rijksmuseum. She enters the 21st century and challenges Indonesian restorer Kirana Diah to a nocturnal conversation about indomitability and decolonization. Their worlds seem far apart, but reveal deep-rooted, confrontational parallels.

This Dutch-Japanese-Indonesian music theatre performance interweaves history and current events in a timeless interplay of music, language and movement. Otemba investigates how history is rewritten, how our perspective is formed, and how cultural legacies collide and interlock. A magical encounter between past and present, East and West, painting and reality.