documenta fifteen

"We want to create a globally oriented, cooperative and interdisciplinary art and culture platform that will remain effective beyond the 100 days of documenta fifteen. Our curatorial approach aims to create a different, collaborative model of resource use - economically, but also in terms of ideas, knowledge, programs and innovation." ruangrupa (2019)

ruangrupa has based documenta 15 (June 18 to September 25, 2022) on the values and ideas of "lumbung". lumbung, directly translated as "rice barn", refers to an architectural structure used collectively in rural areas of Indonesia, in which the harvest of a community is collected, stored and distributed according to collectively determined criteria as a common resource for the future. As a concrete practice, lumbung formed the starting point of documenta 15: principles of collectivity, resource building and equitable distribution were at the center of the curatorial work and shaped the entire process – the structure, self-image and appearance of documenta 15.

The working method was based on an alternative, community-oriented model of sustainability in ecological, social and economic terms, in which resources, ideas and knowledge are shared, as well as on social participation. The idea of sustainability was also fully taken into account in all its manifestations when planning the exhibition.

ruangrupa had already formed an "ekosistem" (Bahasa Indonesian for ecosystem) with other collectives in Jakarta, within which they shared resources collectively. Based on this principle, ruangrupa extended an invitation to documenta to become part of the Ekosistem. With this invitation, they made it clear that they did not perceive documenta as the unilaterally commissioning art institution, but as part of a community in which the distribution of resources is jointly organized.

The artists of documenta 15 were called "lumbung members" and "lumbung artists". In 2020, ruangrupa and the Artistic Team initially invited 14 collectives and initiatives that already followed a lumbung practice. These initiatives also became known as lumbung inter-local members. They then jointly developed the idea and practice of lumbung further and worked on new models of sustainability and collective practices of sharing.

The lumbung members and lumbung artists in turn invited other artists to use shared resources and contribute to the exhibition.

Together with ruangrupa, the artistic team and the 14 lumbung members, the lumbung artists formed an interdisciplinary platform of contemporary art, which in turn invited other actors to documenta 15. Thus, documenta 15 was not shaped by ruangrupa alone, but by a constantly expanding network. At the same time, the principles in Indonesia became clearer and the international circles and connections to Kassel were worked out in a completely new way and specified under lumbung Indonesia, lumbung inter-lokal and lumbung Kassel.
While some artistic works were specifically tailored to the exhibition in Kassel, the contributions of the lumbung members were conceived for the long term. This principle manifests itself, among other things, in the independent and still active collectively operated website www.lumbung.space.

In order to emphasize the processual and sustainability-oriented character of the working methods, nine lumbung members organized events in their respective home cities in the run-up to the exhibition, which were subsequently transferred to Kassel. For example, Gudskul from Jakarta held curricula as part of the Koperasi Laboratory on January 26, 2021, March 9, 2021 and March 26, 2022. As part of the third OFF Biennale Budapest entitled INHALE!, which was held as a hybrid event from April 23 to May 30, 2021, one of the fourteen projects was the Living Room. With the Living Room, which was conceived as a pre-event to documenta 15 and hosted the OFF-Biennale Budapest's public programmes, OFF-Biennale Budapest contextualized its participation in documenta 15 and directly referred to the concept of the living room as a public space of encounter and discourse initiated by ruangrupa.

Britto Arts Trust were also active in the run-up to the exhibition with the projects Pakghor Bangladesh and Revisit, which formed the basis for their artistic participation in the exhibition. In autumn 2021, Jatiwangi art Factory organized a workshop for sound instruments and the festival Rampak Genteng. Rampak Genteng took place on November 11, 2021 in Jatiwangi, Java, Indonesia. The highlight of this series of events was the collective and performative open-air concert. Under the musical direction of Jatiwangi art Factory, more than 150 participants played together on clay musical instruments specially made for the occasion.

From 29 November to 4 December 2021, Más Arte Más Acción organized a meeting for exchange on cultural processes in Nuquí, Chocó, which Más Arte Más Acción titled Lumbung Nuquí. Wajukuu Art Project organized the Slum Art Festival in the Mukuru Slum of Nairobi in December 2021 and the exhibition Systems To Emptiness in the Circle Art Gallery in April 2022. The INLAND Academy offered a total of nine seminars on agroecological and cultural practice from Madrid to Naples, Newcastle, Mallorca and Kassel. In February 2022, the Ségou' Art - Festival sur le Niger took place and Trampoline House founded the Weekend Trampoline House in the Apostle Church in the center of Copenhagen and expanded activities both locally in Copenhagen and in Kassel and elsewhere.

Public programs and Meydan

As a collective endeavor in process, gatherings and events were of particular importance for documenta 15. Over 1,700 events by the participating artists and their invited participants took place during the duration of the exhibition. The opening weekend and the particularly dense Meydan program, which was concentrated over three weekends and organized as a festival, were attended by a total of around 38,000 people. The festival in August 2022 was organized in cooperation with the Schlachthof Kassel and the September edition in cooperation with Sandershaus e. V. Events such as Gudkitchen, the ook_visitorZentrum, the concerts by Jatiwangi art Factory and the tea ceremonies by Festival sur le Niger in the Hübner Areal regularly invited people to come together in a relaxed atmosphere.

Majelises, the Collective Pot and overarching collective projects

The collective projects were further developed in majelises (Indonesian for gatherings). The total of 10 majelis groupings (lumbung inter-lokal majelis and 9 mini-majelises) served to discuss the use of the share of the production budget from the Collective Pot and the further development of the projects, which formed the backbone of documenta 15 in addition to the artistic positions. Examples include lumbung Currency , a working group that - with the BeeCoin by ZK/U - Center for Art and Urbanistics, the Cheesecoin by INLAND, the Dayra by The Question of Funding and the Jalar by Gudskul - focused on strengthening and connecting community currencies, as well as lumbung Land, a group that worked on holistic models for the management and collective ownership of land from a human and non-human perspective.

The results of the projects

lumbung Kios(video), lumbung Gallery, lumbung Film, lumbung Radio(video), lumbung Press(video) and also the gathering of the lumbung of Publishers (in cooperation with Pro Helvetia)(video) were present in the exhibition in Kassel.

lumbung Kios and the lumbung Gallery offered products and artworks by the artists themselves and from their ekosistems and continued to exist after the end of the exhibition. The lumbung Kios product catalog is available at https://lumbung.space/ and that of the lumbung Gallery at www.lumbunggallery.theartists.net/.

lumbung Film is a repository for film and video works by lumbung members and lumbung artists that were screened at the Gloria cinema in Kassel during the exhibition. This gave the audience the opportunity to see earlier works by the artists and collectives and to contextualize their artistic contributions to documenta 15. Guest curators put together the film programs for the three Meydan weekends (8–10 July, 12–14 August and 9–11 September 2022). The lumbung members and lumbung artists bundled their film contributions on lumbung.space, the open-source-based "online living room" for lumbung practice. On this basis, the collectives and artists were able to curate film screenings at their locations around the world for 100 more days after the end of documenta 15.

lumbung Radio was the online community radio project of documenta 15. It was launched in April 2022 and broadcast around the clock from all over the world during the 100 days of documenta 15. Participating radio stations and artists of lumbung Radio were RURUradio (Indonesia), The Nifty Radio (Indonesia), Arts Collaboratory Radio (Mexico), Centre d'art Waza (Democratic Republic of Congo), Radio AlHara (Palestine), LE 18 (Morocco), Amol K Patil and Party Office b2b Fadescha (India), Old Boys Network (OBN) Archive, Radio Rasclat, Freies Radio Kassel and Kollektiv Eigenklang, Cashmere Radio (all Germany), Shared Frequencies Radio (USA), Force inc. / mille plateaux, NON / 'O' / (Austria), Radio Art Zone (Luxembourg), ook_visitorZentrum podcast (Germany), Consonni (Spain), Fugitive Radio (Finland and Germany), Radio Nopal, Radio Ensayo, Radio Cocina Colaboratorio (all Mexico), Good Morning, I Love You (Cyprus) and Station of Commons (Finland).the radio program is still online and available at this link: lumbungradio.stationofcommons.org

Anti-Semitism and the debate surrounding it

From January 2022, just under six months before the start of the exhibition and a good four months after the list of artists was published, documenta 15 was accompanied by accusations of suspected BDS affiliation among its participants. The German media reacted immediately to the debate initiated by a Kassel-based blog. After the Central Council of Jews objected to not being invited as a panelist for a planned discussion forum We need to Talk - which was subsequently canceled - the political pressure on all participants grew immensely. ruangrupa, the artistic team, the lumbung member and artists initially felt unjustifiably attacked and also not sufficiently at home in the debate shaped by the special German responsibility.

However, when it became apparent two days after the official opening that an exhibited work by the Indonesian artist collective Taring Padi(People's Justice, 2000) contained clearly anti-Semitic imagery, documenta 15 found itself at the center of a cultural and socio-political debate. After the resignation of the General Director, Dr. Sabine Schormann, the partners set up an expert scientific committee to examine documenta 15 and its structures against this background. The committee's final report provides the starting point for an organizational development of documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH and its (committee) structures, which is intended to secure the future of the exhibition and prevent such occurrences in the future (as of May 2023).