Budi Agung Kuswara (Kabul)

Budi Agung Kuswara (Kabul) was born in Bali in 1982 and had graduated in a Bachelor in Fine Art from Indonesia Institute of the Art, in Yogyakarta. His paintings first caught the attention of curators in his home ground and Kabul was invited to exhibit at the Bali Museum and Neka Art Museum. Upon showcasing his first solo exhibition “i.self” at Komaneka Fine Art Gallery in 2009, he was headhunted by regional gallery Valentine Willie Fine Art and was presented for the “3 Young Contemporaries” program as one of the most cutting edge young contemporary artist in Southeast Asia. Moving on in his career, Kabul has presented collaborative works on an international level at the Asian Triennial in Manchester and at the San Francisco Art Institute. In the last year, Kabul was invited to participate in the prestigious Artist in Residency Program at the Fukuoka Asian Art Musem and produced work based on his Balinese traditions. Following shortly he completed another 3 months-long residency at regional gallery TAKSU in Kuala Lumpur and presented his work in a solo exhibition at TAKSU Singapore. Together with Mintio, they had founded Ketemu Project Space, which was conceptualized in 2012. In 2016, Kabul is invited as International Residency artist at Bamboo Curtain Studio for 42 days since 1^st October. He will present his works and lead series of workshops in “Water and Land: International projects on Environmental arts” exhibition.

Ketemu Project Space

Ketemu aims to facilitate socially conscious interactions with communities through art and creativity. As a platform for conversations in creative exchanges with society, Ketemu provides the perfect environment for creators and researchers to connect with the culture, landscape, materials, social practices and communities of Bali. Ketemu was conceived in 2011 by artists Budi Agung Kuswara (Kabul) & Samantha Tio (Mintio). Kabul from Indonesia and Mintio from Singapore have been formally trained in painting and photography respectively. Lamenting about how their works and practice only extends to the audience in the commercial art market, the duo teamed up with the goal of developing projects with the participation of community members to address social issues and harness creativity for social empowerment. In 2012, Mintio and Kabul completed a chapter in their co-creation initiative with batik craft-makers of Klaten in central Java. The project titled “Malam di Jari Kita / The Wax on Our Fingers” was a collaboration to address the marginalized status of batik-workers in the craft and rural industries of Indonesia.

After two years of developing workshops and participatory activities for students and audiences to access the research of their projects, Mintio & Kabul established Ketemu Project Space at the beginning of 2015 as a platform for projects and the residency programs in Bali. “Danau Imaginasi Kami / Our Lake of Imagination” was a pilot project of the space, collaborating with students from Kintamani in an art and environmental education project. The space has programmed several workshops and dialogue session in its course and the team has grown to include two new members, Ruth Onduko and Dewi Mayun. Currently, Ketemu is developing a program for 2016, gathering artists locally and from abroad to address issues in gender equality, reproductive health and labor in a project titled “Merayakan Murni / Celebrating Murni” based on the legacy of the late Balinese artist I GAK Murniasih.