Aiiu Kebong
Is our artist line-up for Tangi Street Art Festival 2025
Born in Semparuk in 1991, Ayu Murniati is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans performance, craft, and visual art, with murals at its current core. She graduated in Architecture from Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta in 2016, though her artistic journey began long before. From 2006 to 2012, she trained in theatre, poetry, and performance, which continue to inform the narrative strength of her visual works. By 2012, Ayu had fully committed to the visual arts, and since 2016 she has been actively developing her voice as a muralist.
Her murals often reflect her sensitivity to place, memory, and community, blending architectural understanding with artistic intuition. Ayu represents a new wave of Indonesian female muralists, expanding the conversation around identity and presence in public art.
Aiiu Kebong is one of the invited artists for the third edition of Tangi Street Art Festival, taking place from 11–17 May 2025. The festival is guided by the Balinese philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, which emphasizes harmony in three essential relationships—spirituality, humanity, and nature.
Through this theme, the festival provides a platform for artists to explore connections between the divine (Parahyangan), fostering spiritual and artistic expression; the community (Pawongan), encouraging collaboration and unity; and the natural world (Palemahan), promoting sustainability and environmental consciousness.
Aiiu’s participation highlights her commitment to environmental storytelling. Her mural reflects her West Kalimantan roots, connecting her local identity to Bali’s cultural landscape. By translating ecological awareness into public art, her work resonates with the festival’s theme of tangible relationships between humans, spirituality, and the environment. The festival encourages artists to create works that are visually engaging while addressing meaningful connections, allowing audiences to experience art as both a cultural and ecological dialogue.
Aiiu Kebong, who now lives in Bali, brought the identity and stories of her West Kalimantan homeland into her Tangi 2024 mural. Inspired by the Helmeted Hornbill, an endangered species native to Kalimantan and a symbol of ecological balance, she sought to highlight the bird’s essential role in the forest. The hornbill plants seeds as it feeds on fruit, sustaining the growth of new trees and providing life for countless other species.
In her mural, Aiiu included a small fairy to symbolize hope and the power of prayer, reflecting her desire to inspire care and awareness for the environment. The work became a visual message about stewardship and renewal, connecting her local experience to the global conversation about biodiversity and conservation.
During her time in Bali, Aiiu engaged deeply with her surroundings, reflecting on the ways culture, nature, and human activity intersect. She approached her mural intuitively, allowing the environment and her artistic vision to guide the composition, while remaining conscious of the festival’s broader theme, “SEKALA.”
Her work transforms the wall into a living narrative, bridging personal identity, environmental responsibility, and public art. Through this piece, Aiiu demonstrates that murals can be both beautiful and meaningful, creating a dialogue that reaches beyond the visual to touch hearts and inspire action.