Wimo Ambala Bayang (b. 1976), is a multi disciplinary artist and curator. He graduated from the Photography Department at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta, Indonesia. His preferred mediums are photography, video, object, text, and performances. His works reflect unique perspectives on culture that are not made under a pretence to criticize, but to make us rethink the habits that seem ‘to have always been there’. History and facts, minor and major, are important aspects that must always be considered in his creative process. Wimo is always interested in finding a unique and hidden perspective from our everyday life, to encourage the audience to rethink and to question all the small things that happen in our life. Using his camera, he plays with visual reality, combining the real visual view and imagined fantasy. Wimo also tends to open up layers of different cultures, bringing us to reach a common understanding of our heterogeneous contemporary society.
In 2002, Wimo founded Ruang MES 56, an artist collective working cooperatively with their communities and networks to manage a house for studio, education, playground and a place to live in. Formed in 2002, this community focuses on the development of photography and contemporary art crossing over with other disciplines in critical and contextual approaches.
Over the past 10 years, Wimo has participated in international artist residencies and exchanges in China, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark and Romania. His recent work includes co-curating the Jimei X Arles International Photo Festival in Xiamen and collaborating with Ruang Mes X Foam at the Foam Photo Museum in Amsterdam. He explored new ideas, approaches and contexts related to the development of contemporary photography, influencing his decision to juxtapose photography with other art disciplines.
In 2021, he won the award for Best Indonesian Features-Length Documentary 2021 at the Documentary Film Festival for The Enigma of HeDonism, a documentary he directed about Heri Dono, the most prominent Indonesian artist.