A major new milestone in Indonesia’s cultural landscape begins today with the launch of the inaugural FOTO Bali Festival at Nuanu Creative City. Featuring 34 artists from 10 countries and a total of 32 photography projects (241 prints, 3 multimedia, and 5 photobooks), the festival unfolds over 23 days of exhibitions, workshops, talks, and tours, setting a new precedent for contemporary photography in the region.

“We are extremely art-focused, and the launch of FOTO Bali Festival is particularly interesting to us, as this medium is a striking example of the physical world intersecting with art,” said Lev Kroll, CEO of Nuanu Creative City. “It’s an honor to have such a variety of artists and artworks exploring beauty and curiosities of life. Supporting artists and creating a place of artistic discussion and opening that discussion to our guests and partners is a way to create a meaningful creative space that we are eager to build.”

The theme LIFE was chosen for its openness, for the range of experiences it can hold without needing to be defined. It offered space for artists to reflect on what it means to live, lose, remember and begin again. The works in the festival span grief, intimacy, resistance and renewal each shaped by the personal and cultural contexts they emerge from. As a starting point for the first edition of FOTO Bali Festival, LIFE felt both grounded and expansive.

“The curatorial process led us to work that holds space for what’s often overlooked,” said Ng Swan Ti and Gatari Surya Kusuma, Curators for FOTO Bali Festival 2025. “We were drawn to artists who stay with uncertainty. The process challenged and asked us to slow down and stay open. What made it possible was Nuanu’s trust, there was no pressure to explain, just freedom to build. That shaped the foundation of this festival.”

The exhibitions take place across three outdoor and indoor venues: Labyrinth Art Gallery, Labyrinth Garden, and Popper’s Triangle, each one designed to offer a distinct entry point into visual storytelling.

FOTO Bali Festival 2025 includes artists from Southeast Asia and beyond, such as:

Ali Monis Naqvi, Arum Dayu, Atal Pamo, Azkaluna, Carolina Krieger, Catharine Neilson, Divya Cowasji, Ennuh Tiu, Gabriella Morton, Gorkey Patwal & Anubha Verma, I Wayan Ade Saputra, Karolina Gembara, Kim Hak, Kresnanta, Lê Nguyên Phương, Mediana Tahir, Rangga Yudhistira & Wulang Sunu, Reza Kutjh, Rivo Abdulhaq, Rony Zakaria, Rugun Sirait, Ryan Andrew, Shindy Lestari, Shwe Wutt Hmon, Sophal Neak, Swastik Pal, Tomasz Lazar, Vickram Sombu, Yoese Mariam, Yoppy Pieter, Yusi Yuansa, and Zishaan A Latif.

“This festival is a reminder of what’s possible when people who care about art come together and truly collaborate,” said Kelsang Dolma, Festival Director of FOTO Bali Festival. “I’m proud of what the team has built—quickly, thoughtfully, and with so much heart. For an inaugural edition, the response has been overwhelming, and it’s only motivated us further. Photography doesn’t always get the space it deserves in this region. This is our way of beginning to shift that.”

In addition to the exhibitions, the festival includes more than 25 public sessions featuring over 20 speakers and facilitators. The programming ranges from darkroom experiments and visual storytelling labs to panel discussions and guided tours, led by some of the most respected voices in contemporary photography. Among them are Beawiharta, a veteran photojournalist known for his unfiltered human narratives; Edy Purnomo, whose work bridges memory and image through education and practice; and the Film Photography Club, a collective dedicated to reviving analog techniques through hands-on darkroom work. Also joining the lineup are Manila-based documentary photographer and lecturer Veejay Villafranca, and India’s Anshika Varma, a curator, publisher, and artist exploring visual culture across disciplines.

The launch of FOTO Bali Festival coincides with Nuanu Nights, a monthly evening of music, culture and movement across the creative city. Highlights include a special performance at Daniel Popper’s Earth Sentinels sculpture, traditional Balinese dance at the amphitheatre, and live music flowing through the site into the night.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nuanu Creative City

Labyrinth Art Gallery, a revolutionary gallery located at the heart of Nuanu Creative City in Bali, begins a new chapter in collaboration with Balinese artists, united under the Tepi Barat Collective. The current exhibition, titled "Menanam Garis"—which literally translates to "drawing lines"—explores well-being not as a fixed destination, but as an ongoing, evolving process grounded in awareness, care, and quiet reflection. Every line tells a story. Every sketch expresses a belief. And every color conveys emotion.

Featuring 11 Balinese artists, Tepi Barat is a drawing collective that identifies as line-workers and seekers, offers their reflections on this notion of well-being as a spark for feeling and creating—presented through a drawing exhibition at Labyrinth Art Gallery. In drawing practice, the line is the most basic yet most expressive form. Think of it as a visual meditation where each stroke is a breathing exercise that cultivates understanding, calm, and connection with oneself with the surrounding world. The exhibition invites the viewers to slow down and sharpen their senses on each drawing to discover the artists’ trembling hands, rhythm of breath, and the emotional state.

“It’s a true honor for us to present magnificent artworks by Balinese artists under the Tepi Barat collective. Menanam Garis is a milestone yet also serves as a reflection for us to slow down and pay attention to each line of artwork we are bringing in,” said Nabila Giovanna, Gallery Manager of Labyrinth Art Gallery. She continues, “This exhibition affirms our commitment to curating work that not only holds artistic merit but also carries emotional depth and cultural resonance. As we move forward, Labyrinth Art Gallery will continue to champion thoughtful, process-driven art that invites dialogue, nurtures introspection, and connects audiences to the deeper layers of human experience.”

The artists involved in this exhibition include Anak Agung Gede Wira Merta, I Gede Jaya Putra, I Ketut Sumantara, I Made Sutarjaya, I Nyoman Wijaya, I Wayan Gede Budayana, I Wayan Juni Antara, Made Kenak Dwi Adnyana, Ngurah Darma, NPAAW, and Tri Akta Bagus Prasetya. The exhibition will be on view until 17 July 2025.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nuanu Creative City

This September, Bali will host Art & Bali 2025, an international art fair on 12-14 September at Nuanu Creative City. In this event, Terra Nexus is a high-energy new media exhibition that brings together 23 artists from around the world and Indonesia, including senior artists from Indonesia who will appear for the first time in a new media art exhibition. The exhibition is both an encounter and a confrontation–between traditional media art and new media art, elements and code, ancestral memory and artificial intelligence, and between ritual and real-time visual processing. In addition to the Terra Nexus exhibition at Art & Bali—other exciting information about Art & Bali such as gallery participants and event programs will be announced in July 2025

Curated by Mona Liem, Terra Nexus unspools across immersive installations, augmented landscapes, and speculative interfaces. Here, we are exploring the interconnections of our planet, as they are systems, coded, broken down, rebuilt. Here, Minecraft becomes a temple. Algorithms breathe. Myths get rerouted through machine learning.

“Imagine a space where imagination comes alive, where science and technology merge to connect us with art, nature, and culture,” says Liem. “This exhibition is a showcase of holistic expression—a stage where technology and science dance together to spark innovation rooted in local cultural context.”

Three established names from Indonesian visual culture participating at Terra Nexus include: Nasirun, a legendary Indonesian painter known for his interpretation of traditional arts with socio-political conversation. Ubrux, an award winning artist known for its newspaper painting technique. Yessiow, Balinese leader in mural art, who integrates decorative wall art with loud vibrant color.

Other participating artists span a global orbit, from Poland, France, Japan, Qatar to South Korea, positioning Art & Bali as not just a fair, but a frequency. A gathering of signals.

“Let’s be clear,” says Lev Kroll, CEO of Nuanu Creative City. “Art here is not an afterthought. It’s not an ornament. At Nuanu, it’s how we build. It’s urban planning. It’s spiritual infrastructure. Terra Nexus is proof of that. You’re not just visiting a show, you’re entering a city that believes art should interrupt, not embellish.”

Set on the southwest coast of Bali, Nuanu is a regenerative city built on principles that resist the extractive logic of most developments. It’s a place where cultural stewardship isn’t a footnote, it’s a design principle. That Art & Bali chose this site is no accident.

“There’s no formula for what an art fair in Bali should look like,” says Kelsang Dolma, Fair Director of Art & Bali. “This isn't a borrowed structure, it’s something born of the land itself: mythic, chaotic, beautiful. Terra Nexus is our way of asking what art becomes when it grows out of ritual, landscape, and collective memory, not just theory or market. Here, the elements aren’t themes, they’re ancestors.”

Alongside major young Indonesian artists like Alodia Yap, Popomangun and Widi Pangestu audiences can enter the dystopian underwater world of Dhanny ‘danot’ Sanjaya, a full-scale Minecraft of the world reimagined by MIVUBI, kinetic light organisms by Mukhamad Aji Prasetyo, and light shows and installations by Notanlab. Nothing about it will feel familiar in an art fair. And that’s the point.

Artists featured in Terra Nexus include: Awang Behartawan, Dadi Setiadi, Dr. Justyna Gorowska, Ivan Sagita, J+Art Award Winners, Jana Schafroth, Nus Salomo, Roger Ng Wei Lun, Satya Cipta, Utami A. Ishii, Valerio Vincenzo, Wisnu Ajitama, and many more artists coming up closer to the date.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nuanu Creative City