French Designer For Bali Crafts Research For Paris Design Week

French designer Marta Bakowski showed his research on Balinese crafts for display at Paris Design Week (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - CushCush Gallery collaborates with the French and IFI Indonesian embassies in collaboration with French designers to study Balinese handicrafts as a research to be exhibited at Paris Design Week 2023.

"Initially we got 30 candidates, we wanted artists who are interested in culture, crafts, and like designs that can raise culture and go through the design," said CushCush Founder Jindee Chua Gallery in Denpasar, quoted by Antara, Sunday.

Finally selected an independent artist who is a French designer named Marta Bakowski (35), who was then brought to Bali and settled for a full month.

During that time, Marta was taken to North and East Bali, meeting local craftsmen such as cloth craftsmen, masks, and paintings. There he had a dialogue as well as an idea research to be taken to Paris Design Week next year.

"Marta is a French designer, Paris Design Week is like an international design exhibition festival. So we actually think well because we invite Marta to bring Balinese culture to Paris to be shown," said Jindee.

To the Jindee media, he said that this program is a pilot project that will be held again next year, so that when Bali in 2023 came artists, the results of the project in 2022 were on display at Paris Design Week.

"Hopefully this program can lift traditional handicrafts, because during the pandemic we see tourism going down. So we can go through other areas that have the potential, so handicrafts are chosen," said Jindee.

Meanwhile, Made Sesangka Pujalaksana (52), one of the craftsmen visited by Marta Bakowski, said he was happy when the French designer studied at the Wasundari Studio, Wayang Classic of His Kamasan.

"With his visit to the studio, we are very happy because ancestral heritage can be very interesting for him. Overall he is happy, he plays in the colors, he sees the process of making natural colors and tries to apply colors on the canvas," said the suspect.

Marta herself told the media that she had enjoyed her first trip to Bali for four weeks. The most interesting thing for him is when he meets a mask craftsmen.

During the short journey, the female designer became open and saw everything she found, such as symbols, texture and color. He took the pieces to become a work with philosophical meanings in it.

"The idea behind this project is to develop the results into a product design that will reflect the collaboration between me and the craftsmen. This experience will be presented next year at Paris Design Week," said Marta.

During his stay in Bali, this foreign artist admitted that he was happy because the Island of the Gods had a city/district that was still thick with cultural arts and friendly citizens.

"It feels authentic here and very grounded, a simple but good place. Great hospitality, a very strong sense of tradition, respect for religion and very tolerant trust," said Marta.