Gigantic Artwork Of Ogoh-Ogoh

Coming to Bali gives unforgettable experience in your life. This small island has such huge offer for tourists. It does not only have some of the best beaches in the world, but it’s also rich in art works. You might have ever watched Balinese dance with its breathtaking dance moves and beautiful costumes. Bali is also famous for its paintings and sculpture. Numerous Balinese painters and sculpture artists have held world class exhibition around the world. It seems that art has become a lifestyle for Balinese people. Numerous traditional ceremonies become the place where Balinese people express their artistic side. Each year, there’s this special ceremony called Pengrupukan as a part of Nyepi. At this Pengrupukan ceremony, each banjar or village makes ogoh-ogoh. It’s giant effigies of monster or ugly looking creatures to represent the evil that lives among humans. The villagers will take their ogoh-ogoh on parade and end the parade by burning the ogoh-ogoh to represent evil has been defeated.

Each banjar always shows its creativity in making ogoh-ogoh. It’s such a waste to let those huge artistic effigies turn to ash. Now, some of these artistic ogoh-ogoh are put on display at Museum ogoh-ogoh. There are two museums for ogoh-ogoh in Bali, one is located at Ayodhya Street and the other one at Soka Beach. The one at Ayodhya Street is inside the complex of Manusa Yadnya Museum. It has over 20 ogoh-ogoh as its collection, both evil and good ones with the height between 3 to 5 metres. All these ogoh-ogoh are coming from different villages in Bali. It complete its collection with brief information and story of each ogoh-ogoh. This  museum is managed and run by I Ketut Nuada, a painter who had this idea of collecting ogoh-ogoh. He just wants the international world to know and recognize ogoh-ogoh as one of artworks in Bali. The museum was opened for public in April 2012.

The second museum was opened for public in May 2013. It’s located at Soka Indah Rest Area in Tabanan. As this museum is relatively new, there’s only few collection of ogoh-ogoh, in total is around 16 effigies. The museum occupies the area of 0,5 acre. Each ogoh-ogoh is displayed in small saung with the size of 6x6 metres and 6x4 metres. There’s direct access to the beach from this museum. Both museums are meant to preserve the art work of ogoh-ogoh. It truly takes a lot of work to create one with perfect sculpture on these effigies. It will be a waste to burn these gigantic artworks.