Jakarta has a long history, but does it have nostalgia? The city moves forward at an increasing pace; at the same time, fewer and fewer residents look at old photos as part of the story of their lives. In Jakarta, generations, buildings and maps keep on changing.

What was it about Picasso? Or Sudjojono? Some time in the early 1950s, when Sudjojono was not yet 40, he decided to do something unusual: He and other artists rode their motorbikes from Yogya to Jakarta. Their aim was to convince President Sukarno to agree to the idea of Sticusa, the Dutch foundation for cultural cooperation, to mount a large exhibition of 20th-century European painters: Picasso, Matisse, Braque.