Don’t be misled by the title! Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) never actually traveled to Indonesia during his lifetime. Yet in 2024, artist Genco Gülan journeyed to Bali to contribute to the legend—assuming Dalí’s persona and producing a series of photographs.

Here, we intentionally use a term not often associated with photography: to produce. Although Gülan captured some of these images himself as selfies, he orchestrated the creation of the others. In every frame, Gülan poses in Bali as Dalí. The photographs were taken either by Seray Seçer or by anonymous passersby who happened to be there at the moment.

Dalí in Bali not only forms a magnificent rhyme but also poses several questions to art history. First: even if there are no official records, could Dalí have visited Bali? And even if he did not, might he have drawn inspiration from this surreal culture? While Dalí does not explicitly reference the Far East in his works, we may reasonably assume he was familiar with the paintings of Gauguin (1848–1903). Could the flower Dalí wore behind his ear have been inspired by the dark-skinned Oceanic women depicted by Gauguin and the flowers (perhaps frangipani) they adorned themselves with?

Let us take the reasoning one step further. When the great master created his persona and chose his iconic wide-eyed gaze, might he have drawn inspiration from the facial expressions of Balinese sculptures—such as the Barong? We cannot know. But one thing we do know is that Salvador Dalí declared in interviews that—as a character—he would not die, and that the Dalí legend would continue.

Indeed, even if Dalí never traveled to Bali, his legend has long surrounded the island. In Ubud, for example, a collage paying tribute to Dalí occupies a prominent place in the Blanco Artist Museum, in what was once the painter’s studio. At the Neka Art Museum, another work by Blanco crowns the master’s iconic mustache in homage.

As with many of his other works, contemporary artist Genco Gülan’s journey to Bali aims to collide East and West, tradition and modernity. He seeks to pay tribute to Balinese mythology, which has not yet secured the place it deserves on the global cultural map. But above all, he aspires to create fantastical images that appear just as surreal as the paintings of Salvador Dalí.

Referential works hold an important place in Gülan’s artistic practice. However, he chooses not only to reinterpret Dalí’s artworks (for example, Melting Communication, 2023), but also the persona the master wore as a method of artistic exploration.

Dalí has been one of Genco Gülan’s childhood heroes. He may have heard the name of the great master even before he heard the word “art.” Their first encounter occurred when Gülan was a child, through an Ara Güler photo-report in Ses magazine belonging to his grandfather. Years later, Gülan included the Salvador Dalí character—under the name Salvador—in his Self Portrait? (2014) series. With the Dalí in Bali photo project, the character’s journey has begun to evolve into a photo-novel of its own.