Jean Couteau

Dr Jean Couteau is a multilingual writer who publishes extensively on a variety of genres and topics in French, English and Indonesian. A graduate of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and former lecturer at the Denpasar Institut Seni Indonesia, he is a reputed specialist on Balinese culture: Bali, 50 ans de Changement (2021), avec Eric Buvelot, Now Bali I (2005), Now Bali II (2008), Puri Lukisan (2000), Un Autre Temps: les Calendriers Tika de Bali (2004), Bali Inspires (2011),...See more

Dr Jean Couteau is a multilingual writer who publishes extensively on a variety of genres and topics in French, English and Indonesian. A graduate of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and former lecturer at the Denpasar Institut Seni Indonesia, he is a reputed specialist on Balinese culture: Bali, 50 ans de Changement (2021), avec Eric Buvelot, Now Bali I (2005), Now Bali II (2008), Puri Lukisan (2000), Un Autre Temps: les Calendriers Tika de Bali (2004), Bali Inspires (2011), Time, Rites and Festivals in Bali (2013, with Georges Breguet), and Myth, Magic and Mystery in Bali (2018). Well-known as a curator and art writer, he was senior editor of the contemporary art magazine C-Arts, has written hundreds of reviews in newspapers and magazines such as Gatra, Tempo, Kompas, Jakarta Post as well as books on several important Indonesian artists such as Affandi, Srihadi Sudarsono, Walter Spies, I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Arifien Neif, Made Wianta and Joko Pekik. He has written biographies of Indonesian public figures and contributed to journals such as Archipel, Le Banian, etc, not to mention short stories here and there. He translated into Indonesia seminal French writers such as Jean Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault. He is frequently asked to be a guest or keynote speaker at various national and international events. He was on the steering committee of the 2013 World Cultural Forum. He is presently best known in Indonesia for his "Kolom Udar Rasa" published in the Sunday cultural page of Kompas, which also published his "Kolom Indonesiaku" (2018). He is well-known for his articles on Balinese culture published monthly in English in Now! Bali Magazine. He is currently preparing another collection of his articles and stories on Balinese culture. See less