The members of ruangrupa, the Indonesian art collective confirmed on Friday as artistic director of the next edition of Documenta, have announced that they will pursue a participatory, community-based model for the quinquennial exhibition.
At a press conference, members of the collective Farid Rakun and Ade Darmawan stated their intention to ‘create a globally oriented, cooperative, interdisciplinary art and culture platform’ that would adopt a ‘different community-oriented model of resource usage’. Noting that Documenta was founded in the wake of the Second World War as a means of fostering cultural exchange and integration, they set out their intention to focus on exposing perspectives ‘rooted in colonialism, capitalism, or patriarchal structures’ and to ‘contrast them with partnership-based models that enable people to have a different view of the world’.
Speaking on behalf of the exhibition’s selection committee, curator Philippe Pirotte praised ruangrupa’s ‘ability to appeal to various communities, including groups that go beyond pure art audiences, and to promote local commitment and participation’ and a curatorial approach based on an ‘international network of local community-based art organisations’. The decision to appoint the first artists to lead the exhibition (and only the second non-European or American) marks a significant shift in direction for the organisation – which has been recently been mired in controversy over budget overspend – away from from the previous edition’s division of the exhibition between Athens and its traditional home in Kassel.
Founded in 2000 in Jakarta, ruangrupa comprises, in addition to Rakun and Darmawan, artists and curators Reza Afisina, Ajeng Nurul Aini, Indra Ameng, Mirwan Andan, Iswanto Hartono, Daniella Fitria Praptono and Julia Sarisetiati. It is best known for its art space in the city and for working across exhibitions, festivals, publications and radio formats (notably contributing to the online radio programme of Documenta 14). In 2016 the collective curated TRANSaction: Sonsbeek 2016 in Arnhem, and last year founded GUDSKUL, an interdisciplinary studio complex for artists, designers and architects. Darmawan, an artist and the group’s founder, has been praised for his work as artistic director of the Jakarta Biennial. Documenta 15 will take place in the summer of 2022.
25 February 2019
