What exactly makes art, art?

Is it a piece that leaves a lasting impression? Perhaps it elicits an emotional connection? Or it could be introspective, challenging us to delve into our own selves?

At Bali's luxury hotel Potato Head, the art installations provide sustenance for the thriving creative community that both work and play across the expansive property. They tell the origin story of Potato Head in a gentle yet invigorating way.

For many, Potato Head in Seminyak is better known as one of Bali's most popular beach clubs. But right next door is a luxury hotel that opened its doors at the commencement of COVID-era travel restrictions in 2020. Its opening was supposed to make a huge splash, the dawning of a new era of luxury and creativity. Alas, fate had other plans, and Potato Head has had a softer introduction to Balinese tourism.

Potato Head is no ordinary hotel. It more resembles a small township, which is probably why the staff have affectionately named it Desa Potato Head - 'desa' meaning village in Indonesian. Dotted across the expansive property are near a dozen vibrant and even interactive art installations.

"We didn't want to preach to people. But we hope that it makes them question and think," said communications director Maria Garcia Del Cerro.

On my first day at the property Maria took us on a tour past one of the biggest installations titled, 5000 lost soles. The piece is a rainbow wave of plastic and rubber flip-flops, all of which had been pulled out of the ocean.

"Maybe people look at it and realise they don't need another new pair of shoes this year."

Desa Potato Head is one of the world leaders in regenerative tourism. It is also runs arguably the largest recycling facilities in all of Bali, much of which happens on site at the hotel. And it's these practices that have shaped the art that enriches the Desa. Possibly the largest art piece at Potato Head is Pointman - River Warrior. It has been fashioned entirely from waste material that was recycled in the back house of the hotel.

Among Desa Potato Head's catalogue of unique activities is its Follow The Waste tour. Believe me, when I said yes to venturing on a trip to the property, I had no idea I would end up looking through the hotel's bin room - or that I would find it so fascinating. Yes, Follow The Waste has you literally follow the path of waste as it makes its way through the hotel. First into the bin room for sorting.

Here, organic matter is separated out for food for livestock - in order to minimise how much extra food is required to be farmed to feed the animals of the island. Anything unsuitable for the animals is sent for composting. Non-organic matter is then sent for recycling.

Beer bottles are transformed into the glass tumblers used at the restaurants. Wine bottles and old frying oil are used to make candles. Coloured plastics are melted down into objects like decorative trays or, into larger slabs which are then used to make furniture.

Very little actually finds its way into landfill - less than 3 percent in fact.

When founder Ronald Akili first had his vision for a regenerative and sustainable community in the heart of Bali, its unlikely he imagined an on-site recycling facility. But due to the lack of existing facilities and sustainable technology on this small island of Indonesia, if Desa Potato Head wanted sustainability woven in the fabric of the hotel, it became clear this was not a practice it could outsource.

Closed-loop recycling is considered the gold standard, but this is a type of technology hardly available in even the most developed nations. With landfill piling up all over the island, Potato Head needed to find easy solutions to a very real and growing problem.

The simplest devices, ones that melt plastic or crush coconut shells are at the core of the Desa's recycling processes.

I used one myself to manufacture my very own Potato Head galaxy coaster from old blue bottle caps.

Impressively, Potato Head then wove these simple steps into a blueprint for regenerative practice. It's now being used by a Potato Head-owned waste processing operation at Bali's largest landfill site. There are plans to open 10 more facilities just like it by 2028.

We piled into a van after our Follow the Waste tour for an experience outside of the Desa. An hour out of the hustle and bustle is Sweet Potato, Potato Head's regenerative farm. It began as a way for the Desa to feed the broader community during COVID travel bans, when work was scarce and money was tight. Now, it is the hotel's community food project - one that helps to create jobs and also teaches people about the transformative power of growing your own food.

While most of the food harvested at the Sweet Potato farm still goes towards feeding the local communities in Western Bali, some makes a return trip to the Desa where it's used at Tanaman, one of Potato Head's four on-site restaurants. Tanaman sits at the front of the Desa's suites building, overlooking the adult's only pool. It doesn't immediately register than Tanaman is an entirely plant-based restaurant.

It's showcase of sustainable eating - regeneratively farmed, animal-free dishes.

Again, it's all part of Desa Potato Head's policy not to preach. Instead of forcing an ideology, Tanaman shows how devastatingly luscious vegan food can truly be. I ate fluffy berry-and-coconut pancakes and a bold nasi goreng - with a zesty sambal that I was thinking about for days after.

Just in front of Tanaman is the Desa's (farm)acy - a holistic wellness space where many of Potato Head's experiences and classes are run. Here, you'll find a floating trellis of plants, glass jars of dried leaves, droppers of oils and beakers filled with all manner of tonics. Dambi Kim is the Desa's resident wellness expert. She's at the (farm)acy daily teaching incense making classes, customising tea rituals and running astrocartography sessions - when she's not making her own unique brand of music that is.

Jamu making classes, 6am meditation, sound baths and breathwork classes are also on the weekly schedule to appease those like myself who wanted to delve into some of the traditional wellness of the region. But if you'd rather undertake your wellness at the spa, there's one of those too.

When you mention Potato Head to most people, they still first imagine the famous beach club that formed the origins of the Potato Head community - unaware of the prosperous and rejuvenating village found just behind it. But Desa Potato Head embraces this existing connection. Music, food and nightlife are core to the Potato Head experience.

In fact, the Desa wanted to build on its reputation for cultivating some of the best party culture in the region.

It recently opened Klymax, a purpose-built night club space. The floorboards have a spring to them so you can dance for longer and the layers of insulation prevent vibrations from interfering with sound quality. It doesn't open until 11pm or 12am on weekends but the party carries on until the sun has well and truly risen over the hills. If you're not a clubber anymore (like myself), you can still head to Klymax for a midweek movie screening.

Of course, you don't need to stay at Desa Potato Head to patron the beach club. Day visitors have their own special entrance to the premises. Entry involves a walk through a lattice-encased corridor. As you pass one of the many marigold offerings that decorate the expanse of the Desa, you will stroll past the regenerative origin story of Potato Head. The walls tell stories of the Desa's practices and the blueprint it shares openly with other hotels in the hope of uplifting all of Bali. You pass the Desa's own radio recording studio and the workshop where Potato Head's signature water bottles are fashioned using post-consumer waste. Eventually, you emerge, ready to sink your feet into the sand.

It's hard to capture the spirit of such place in words. A carbon-neutral haven for creatives, rebels and romantics. A place that is so nourishing and effervescent that just a week's stay can reverently debunk and then reconstruct the way we understand regeneration - that it is about both the internal and external. True sustainability is about nurturing our minds with experience, art and life in a way that doesn't cost the Earth.

Mia Steiber visited Desa Potato Head as a guest of the hotel in September 2024.