Lessons from lumbung one, around the one known as documenta fifteen

The healers of the research and exhibition project El futuro ya fue: Antifuturismo cimarrón, Yuderkys Espinosa-Miñoso and Katia Sepúlveda, invite farid rakun from ruangrupa, a contemporary art collective based in Jakarta, Indonesia, to an open conversation about the curatorial experience of documenta fifteen and the debates and dilemmas that contemporary critical art presents when it is produced from a decolonial and anti-racist commitment.

farid rakun (ruangrupa), artistic director of the last version of documenta, will tell us from his experience what happened in this event and the controversies that were generated around the curatorial proposal, "Architecture-Lumbung", how to imagine an "other" world, where the existence of the other is the guarantee for the continuity of life: With or without art? Inside or outside Europe?

At the same time, Yuderkys Espinosa-Miñoso, Katia Sepúlveda and farid rakun wiill discuss around the following questions: what would the world be like if Europe -as a trope, as a program- had never existed? What implications would this question have applied to the artistic field?

This activity wants to give continuity to the issues discussed in the theoretical-practical seminar/laboratory that took place in 2021-2022 at La Virreina; reflections that will materialize in two simultaneous exhibitions in October 2023 at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge and the Centre d'Arts Santa Mònica.

Interesting links:

https://ruangrupa.id/
https://documenta-fifteen.de/
https://lumbung.space/
https://gudskul.art/

By the Centre d'Arts Santa Mònica

In collaboration with La Virreina Centre de la Imatge

With the participation of farid rakun, Yuderkys Espinosa-Miñoso and Katia Sepúlveda

Language: English and Spanish with simultaneous translation.

farid rakun is transdisciplinary and an architect by training (B.Arch from Universitas Indonesia and M.Arch from Cranbrook Academy of Art). He is part of the artist collective ruangrupa, with whom he co-organised TRANSaction: Sonsbeek 2016 in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and took over the collective artistic direction of documenta fifteen (Kassel, 2022).

ruangrupa is a Jakarta-based collective established in 2000. It is a non-profit organization that strives to support the idea of art within urban and cultural context by involving artists and other disciplines such as social sciences, politics, technol- ogy, media, etc, to give critical observation and views towards Indonesian urban contemporary issues. ruangrupa also produce collaborative works in the form of art projects such as exhibition, festival, art lab, workshop, research, as well as book, magazine and online-journal publication.

As an artists’ collective, ruangrupa has been involved in many collaborative and exchange projects, including participating in big exhibitions such as Gwangju Biennale (2002 & 2018), Istanbul Biennial (2005), Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (Brisbane, 2012), Singapore Biennale (2011), São Paulo Biennial (2014), Aichi Triennale (Nagoya, 2016) and Cosmopolis at Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2017). In 2016, ruangrupa curated TRANSaction: Sonsbeek 2016 in Arnhem, NL.

From 2015 to 2018, ruangrupa co-developed a cultural platform Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem together with several artists’ collectives in Jakarta, located at Gudang Sarinah warehouse, Pancoran, South Jakarta. It is a cross-disciplinary space that aims to maintain, cultivate and establish an integrated support system for creative talents, diverse communities, and various institutions. It also aspires to be able to make connections and collaborate, to share knowledge and ideas, as well as to encourage critical thinking, creativity, and innovations. The results of these joint collaborations are open for public access—and presented with various exhibitions, festivals, workshops, discussions, film screenings, music concerts, and publications of journals.

In 2018, learning from their experience establishing Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem and together with Serrum and Grafis Huru Hara, ruangrupa co-initiated GUDSKUL: contemporary art collective and ecosystem studies (or Gudskul, in short, pronounced similarly like “good school” in English). It is a public learning space established to practice an expanded understanding of collective values, such as equality, sharing, solidarity, friendship and togetherness.