Nuanu Announces Second Edition of FOTO Bali Festival, Appointing Kurniadi Widodo and Putu Sridiniari as Curators

Nuanu Creative City announces the second edition of FOTO Bali Festival, taking place from 3 June to 12 July 2026 in Bali. Following a strong inaugural edition, the international photography festival continues as a platform for lens-based practitioners and visual artists to connect, exchange ideas and work across local and global contexts.

Launched in 2025, FOTO Bali Festival was conceived in response to the absence of a dedicated international photography platform in the region, and the growing demand for one. Its inaugural edition brought together 34 artists from 10 countries, selected from 247 submissions across 29 countries. The response affirmed the need for a space where photographic practices from Southeast Asia and beyond can meet, be seen and be critically engaged, positioning Bali as an active participant in contemporary photographic discourse.

“The response from artists across Southeast Asia and the wider international photography community affirmed that this platform truly matters. I’m deeply grateful for Nuanu’s trust in supporting FOTO Bali Festival as a long-term commitment to cultural infrastructure, rather than a one-off initiative. From the beginning, we’ve allowed the festival to evolve through practice, paying attention to context, learning as we go, and making decisions carefully, while staying open to working closely with artists and others who are invested in shaping Nuanu as a shared cultural space.” - Kelsang Dolma, Festival Director

For its second edition, Nuanu appoints two Indonesians Kurniadi Widodo and Putu Sridiniari as curators. Together, they will shape the festival’s curatorial direction, artist selection and public programmes.

Based in Yogyakarta, Widodo brings a background as a photographer, educator and curator, with long-standing engagement in documentary practice and photographic education. Sridiniari, a Balinese curator and researcher working between Bali and Yogyakarta, contributes a research-driven approach informed by visual art, archives, and questions of memory, place, and socio-political context. Their combined perspectives form the curatorial foundation for the 2026 edition.

“This festival offers an important space for photographers to meet beyond institutional or geographic boundaries. My focus is on creating a curatorial framework that allows different practices to speak to one another—without losing sight of where they come from.” said Kurniadi Widodo.

“For me, photography is a way of tracing how images move through time, memory, and social space. At FOTO Bali Festival, I’m interested in how photographic practices are shaped by local realities, while remaining in conversation with wider histories and contexts.” added Putu Sridiniari

As an annual initiative, FOTO Bali Festival extends beyond exhibition-making. Through a series of encounters across exhibitions, conversations and educational initiatives, the festival creates space for audiences and practitioners to spend time with photography as an evolving practice, one closely tied to everyday life, memory, and the conditions in which images are made.

The second edition of FOTO Bali Festival continues to support artistic practice and international exchange in Bali. By hosting an international photography festival on the island, the festival contributes to a growing cultural ecosystem, positioning Bali as an active site of contemporary photographic practice and artistic discourse across Southeast Asia and beyond.

Photo Credit: (L to R) Frutti Noventi and Gevi Noviyanti