The members of Ruangrupa grew up during the Indonesian dictatorship of Suharto. Power emanated from one person, economic policy was organized in a neoliberal way, and those who thought differently were persecuted. Haji Mohamed Suharto died in 1998. The artist collective was formed in 2000 and set out to proclaim the opposite of Suharto’s course in every detail. The 15th documenta is also permeated by this spirit.
The festival’s leitmotif is the values and ideas of “Lumbung”, the Indonesian term for a communal rice barn. A programmatic statement from documenta’s management reads: “As an artistic and economic model, Lumbung is based on principles such as collectivity, joint construction of resources and fair distribution and is carried out in all areas of cooperation and exhibition design.”
Saleh Husein Collaborative work as a concept: Ruangrupa from Indonesia
Radical principle of cooperation
Ruangrupa has radically implemented this concept. They did not invite individual artistic personalities to present their work; it’s not explicitly about the audience being captivated by an aura of genius. The public must have a view of the processes and maybe even become part of the processes here and there. Ruangrupa invited collectives of artists from around the world, who in turn were allowed to bring in groups as cooperation partners.
Along with local initiatives, places were created that should continue to have an impact far beyond the traditional documenta 100 days. Among them, a halfpipe built together with local skaters, a bridge made of recycled material that was built together with school children, projects to revitalize the Fulda River, which has been neglected in urban planning, such as floating gardens and a pier. which is intended to make river parties possible, in addition to a planting campaign with local forestry companies.
Nicolas Wefers Artist group La Intermundial Holobiente converts a compost pile into a living book
In the vicinity of the greenhouse in Karlsaue there is also a compost pile or deadwood area, which is used by landscape gardeners at the Landscape Museum Hessen-Kassel. In this “wild” area, which is not designed by humans, La Intermundial Holobiente created a multimedia space for its publication “The Book of Ten Thousand Things” in a container, with showcases, a canvas and fragments of associative text on a padding board. of space.
No documentation for art tourists
But what does this concept mean to the public? You cannot visit the documenta as an exhibition. Classical art only plays a role here and there in the form of individual installations, for example in the entrance area of the Documenta Hall and in front of the Fridericianum, the center of documenta, where the Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi, in view of current crises, like the Ukraine war, used peace symbols and programmatic slogans for world status in the pillars of the gateway.
APA/dpa/Swen concierge Dan Perjovschi designed the Fridericianum entrance area
But if you just walk, or rather, march, because documenta’s art sites stretch all over the city, you’ll miss the essentials. In an interview with the art magazine “monopoly”, Ruangrupa member Farid Rakun says: “If you are a tourist and you only have a few hours, that is fine. But I must also say that this is not what we are assuming. here in Kassel to engage more deeply with artistic positions, so don’t necessarily think you need to run and see everything.”
Making friends instead of making art
According to Rakun, it’s best to decide ahead of time to delve into individual projects. On-site mediation is particularly important this time around. A Japanese collective, for example, uses its movie caravan to show projections in various locations, has an artistically designed on-board herbal sauna, whose shape is reminiscent of the Fukushima reactor accident, and hosts parties with live DJs. In essence, however, it is about creating meeting places. The mission is to find friends, said Japanese Takeshi Kuribayashi in an interview with ORF.at: “The motto ‘Make friends, not art’ is a value we share with Ruangrupa”.
There is no concrete plan on how to interact with the audience, it was announced in advance: “Everything is random. What happens is not a coincidence but a necessity. What happens happens. There is no need for leadership or control.” We read similar things everywhere from those involved in this document.Detailed reports from Kassel on projects like those of the Japanese collective will follow on ORF.at.
The concept of apparent lack of concept
The “let’s see what happens” approach is no small bet. After all, there were over 800,000 people in the last documenta five years ago. This time it could be even more. A week before documenta began, as Henriette Sölter, a spokeswoman for the festival, told Die Zeit, more than twice as many tickets were sold compared to the same period five years ago. The post-pandemic and interim hunger for culture seems big.
Sending a million people without knowing exactly what is going on can be a suicide mission. But Ruangrupa knows what he’s doing. Since their founding, they have curated several international festivals, also in Europe, and their apparent lack of concept has continued to mature. This applies both to dealing with the public and to the sustainability of projects after the festivals are over.
Reza Afisina von Ruangrupa, by Nicolas Wefer, artistic director of documenta fifteen, and Michael Gerst, head of the state-owned company HessenForst, plant oaks
Debate over allegations of anti-Semitism
It wasn’t always clear that the race for tickets would be this big this year. Because this documenta has to deal with a bitter debate. Ruangrupa invited the Palestinian collective “The Financing Question” from Ramallah. The group cooperates with the Khalil al-Sakakini Cultural Center. In the first half of the 20th century, its founder Sakakini was an Arab nationalist, sympathizing with National Socialism and advocating violence against the founding of the Israeli state.
In addition, other participants in this documenta are also close to the BDS initiative, which advocates a boycott of Israel. A Kassel alliance against anti-Semitism therefore went to the barricades. A broad debate in the media was unleashed. More recently, former German finance minister and former mayor of Kassel, Hans Eichel, commented in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Eichel hasn’t been absent once since the first documenta in 1955 and will be there again this time.
“We need to talk”
“We need to talk,” he emphasized, citing the title of a series of talks in the dcocumenta. The festival is by no means sacrosanct against criticism. But he also referred to the clarification of the direction of documenta, which rejects any accusation of anti-Semitism. Otherwise, it’s wait and see what can actually be seen: “This debate cannot be done in advance, but only during the show with detailed knowledge of the exhibition”. center of this document.