Wimo Ambala Bayang is an interdisciplinary artist and curator born in 1976. He obtained his degree in Photography from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta. He works with various mediums such as photography, video, object, text, and video performances. His art is not meant to criticize but rather to make people rethink the habits that seem “to have always been there”. History and facts, both minor and major, are important aspects of his creative process. He is interested in finding a unique and hidden perspective from everyday life to encourage the audience to rethink and question small things that happen in our lives. He combines visual reality with imagined fantasy, playing with the camera 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 that focuses on the development of photography and contemporary art, crossing over with other disciplines in critical and contextual approaches. He has participated in international artist residencies and exchanges in China, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Romania over the past decade.
Wimo has curated several projects, Indonesian Today, in Tokyo Photography Month 2011, Pause Rewind Fast Forward #2 at Kiniko Art, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, We Go Where We Now at Galeri R.J Katamsi, the Arts Institute of Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Collaborate! A Year of Visual Encounters, Foam x Ruang Mes 56, FOAM FOTO MUSEUM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Greetings from Indonesia, Jimei X Arles Photography Festival, Xiamen, China. He is also a co-programmer for Festival Film Dokumenter 2022 and 2023.
In 2021, Wimo won the award for Best Indonesian Long Documentary 2021 at the Documentary Film Festival for The Enigma of HeDonism, a documentary he directed about Heri Dono, the most prominent Indonesian artist
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.