Nuanu Sets a Leading Example for Public–Private Cultural Partnership Through FOTO Bali Festival 2026

Running from 3 June to 12 July 2026, FOTO Bali Festival 2026, hosted by Nuanu Creative City, continues to expand beyond exhibitions as the photography industry across Indonesia and Southeast Asia increasingly calls for stronger access, collaboration, and long-term support systems for practitioners.

“For Nuanu, hosting FOTO Bali Festival is about supporting the ecosystem around creative practice,” said Lev Kroll, CEO of Nuanu Creative City. “Photography needs more than exhibition spaces. It needs collaboration, public engagement, institutional support, and opportunities for practitioners to connect across disciplines and regions.”

At a time when photographers and lens-based practitioners need stronger access to platforms, networks, mentorship, visibility, and long-term support, the festival offers a working example of how public–private collaboration can create meaningful opportunities for artistic practice.

Now in its second edition, FOTO Bali Festival 2026 presents AFTERIMAGE, curated by Kurniadi Widodo and Putu Sridiniari, with 38 artists from 24 countries across exhibitions, photobooks, multimedia works, talks, workshops, screenings, and public programmes.

This year, the festival’s ecosystem-building approach is reflected through three major collaborations: MTN Seni Budaya, a national talent management programme under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Indonesia; Institut Seni Indonesia Denpasar, one of Bali’s key arts education institutions; and Bali Motion Club, an independent creative community working across visual culture, moving image, music, and experimental formats.

Together, these collaborations bring more than 58 Indonesian artists and practitioners into the wider festival programme, including 23 artists through MTN Seni Budaya’s LIGHTS IN FRAME, 21 artists through the ISI Denpasar collaboration, and 14 artists through Bali Motion Club’s The Voyager.

Presented at Block 42, Nuanu Creative City, LIGHTS IN FRAME features 23 artists from across Indonesia who are alumni of MTN Lab 2025. The artists previously took part in MTN Lab programmes across Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Denpasar, and Gorontalo, developing works rooted in observation, social context, personal memory, archives, landscapes, community, and everyday life.

Through photography, video, installation, objects, archives, and multimedia approaches, LIGHTS IN FRAME reflects how contemporary lens-based practice in Indonesia is moving beyond the image alone and becoming a way to record, question, and understand lived realities.

“What makes Lights in Frame particularly compelling is its bold expansion of the meaning of photography. In the hands of these artists, photography is no longer merely the result of capturing an image through a camera, but a medium for reading, recording, and interpreting reality.” said Judi Wahyudin, S.S., M.Hum. Secretary of the Directorate General of Cultural Development, Utilization, and Promotion, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Indonesia.

The collaboration with ISI Denpasar brings 21 artists into the festival programme, creating an important bridge between arts education and the professional cultural ecosystem. Rather than positioning students and educators only as audiences, the collaboration gives them space to present work, participate in dialogue, and engage directly with curators, practitioners, institutions, and public audiences.

“Through our participation in FOTO Bali Festival, this international platform serves as a meaningful opportunity to put the Tri Dharma Perguruan Tinggi into practice through artistic creation and community engagement,” said Farhan Adistyasmara, In house Curator of ISI Bali “The involvement of students and emerging artists as curators and speakers strengthens our international academic engagement while fostering research collaboration and knowledge exchange with practitioners and scholars from around the world.”

Bali Motion Club’s The Voyager presents 14 artists in a special dome-based presentation, expanding photography into immersive, collaborative, and time-based formats. As an independent creative community in Bali, Bali Motion Club brings a vital grassroots perspective to the festival and connects younger audiences, experimental practitioners, and interdisciplinary creative networks to the wider photography conversation.

“Words can't describe how grateful I am—how grateful we are—for this opportunity. I keep telling people, this collaboration is a dream come true: my dream and the community's dream. The Voyager is the journey of a spoken dream. We envisioned this exhibition back in 2024, and now it's happening.” said Andyo Aryoga, Founder of Bali Motion Club.

Alongside the exhibition, MTN Seni Budaya’s participation in FOTO Bali Festival 2026 includes workshops and talks led by established practitioners including Ng Swan Ti, M. Alfariz, Firman Ichsan, Rio Helmi, and Marlowe Bandem. These sessions are designed to expand knowledge exchange, support capacity-building, and connect emerging talents with experienced mentors in the field of photography and visual culture.

“Photography in Indonesia has incredible energy, but energy alone is not enough,” said Kelsang Dolma, Festival Director of FOTO Bali Festival. “Artists need places to show their work, but they also need mentors, educators, communities, institutions, and audiences who stay with the practice beyond one exhibition. For us, FOTO Bali Festival is not only about what is on the wall. It is about what happens around it: the conversations, the learning, the exchanges, and the relationships that allow the ecosystem to grow.”

Together, the collaborations with MTN Seni Budaya, ISI Denpasar, Bali Motion Club, and other festival partners reflect a wider model for cultural development in Bali: one where the public sector, education, independent communities, and private cultural infrastructure work together to strengthen the conditions around artistic practice.

Through FOTO Bali Festival, Nuanu Creative City continues to position itself as a platform where cultural infrastructure is not only built physically, but socially: through networks, shared knowledge, public access, and long-term relationships between artists, institutions, communities, and audiences.

FOTO Bali Festival 2026 is supported by partners across education, culture, hospitality, and the creative industries, including MTN Seni Budaya, ISI Denpasar, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Jakarta, Pondok Lensa, Sekelakfoto, Bali Motion Club, Nuanu Social Fund, Oshom, Lumeira, Nuanu Suites, and Longhouse.

PHOTO Credit: Nuanu Creative City

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