Koloniale tentoonstelling te Semarang 1914

This bronze medal was created by Johannes Cornelis Wienecke to commemorate the Colonial Exhibition in Semarang. Colonial exhibitions, held by European powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, served as a means of celebrating and legitimizing colonial expansion. The exhibition was held in Semarang, Java, now part of Indonesia, in 1914, during a period of Dutch colonial rule. The seated female figure on the medal can be seen as an allegory for the Dutch East Indies. This medal embodies the complicated power dynamics that define the colonial relationship between the Netherlands and its colony, now Indonesia. To better understand this object, we might look at the archives of the Dutch East India Company, travelogues of European visitors to Java, and studies of colonial propaganda. The meanings of art often shift as social and institutional contexts change and new historical interpretations emerge.