Nge-Téh / Tea Time
Architectures of Colonial Commodity Chain from Indonesia to Germany, 19th Century.
Pavillon 333, Türkenstraße 15, Munich
22 July 2026, 18:00 - 20:00
23 - 26 July 2026, 10:00 - 17:00
Visits and special guided tours at special hours are available upon request.
The Architecture Museum der TUM presents the exhibition “Nge-Téh / Tea Time: Architectures of Colonial Commodity Chain from Indonesia to Germany, 19th Century.” The exhibition aims to demonstrate the origins of tea, a drink consumed daily in Europe, as a colonial commodity. Architecture, media, and infrastructure are traced from the tea plantations of West Java, where tea was cultivated and processed, through its shipment and storage between Batavia and Hamburg, to its advertisement in newspapers and at World's Fairs, and finally to its sale and consumption in Germany, especially in Munich. The exhibition sketches a global architectural history that connects these scattered sites to reveal the global / trans-imperial colonial commodity chain of tea which enabled its mass consumption in nineteenth-century Europe and whose colonial legacies continue to shape its consumption today. Although Indonesia was never a German colony, Germany was not exempt from the global colonial commodity chain and was connected to Indonesia through its tea trade and the German planters active in colonial Indonesia. The works exhibited encompass historical primary sources (mostly photographs, drawings and newspaper), tea trade-related artifacts, critical ceramic artworks, and a film on a former tea plantation in West Java from the perspectives of two workers of both colonial and post-colonial generations.
Entry: Free Admission
Team
Curator, researcher and coordinator: Geraldus Martimbang
Student co-curators, researchers and exhibition design: Felix Mascotto, Eléonore Cicchini, Lorenzo Edward, Jakob Spickers
Film: Deden M. Sahid, Budimansyah, Muhammad Alnoza
Ceramist: Ivana Carynthia Ligo
Members of Sagonese e.V. and Indonesian Students Association in Munich (PPI)
Poster graphic design: Amadea Valerie Bachtiar
Exhibition advisor: Prof. Andres Lepik, Dr. Damjan Kokalevski, Cara Haehl-Pfeifer
Staff of Architekturmuseum der TUM and Chair for Architectural History and Curatorial Practice
Contact
Organization: contact@sagonese.de
Curatorial: geraldus.martimbang@tum.de
Events Accompanying The Exhibition:
Vernissage / Opening – Wednesday, July 22, 2026, 6 pm
Scholarly Workshop “Commodity, Plantation and Colonialism in Indonesia. Current Research in Social, Economic and Architectural History.” (In-Person Format) – Thursday, July 23, 2026, 1 - 6:30 p.m.; Friday, July 24, 2026, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Warung Nge-téh – Indonesian Pop-up Café – Saturday, July 25, 2026, 12 - 3 p.m.
Film Screening “We had to squat and perform sembah, edan!” and Conversation with Film Makers (Hybrid Format) – Sunday, July 26, 2026, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Guided Tours:
Saturday, 25 July 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 (Indonesian)
Sunday, 26 July 2026, 14:00 - 15:30 (German), 15:30 - 17:00 (English)
Special group guided tours at special hours are available upon request.
