Documenta 15: High expectations of ruangrupa

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Three years of ruangrupa remains, the documenta 15 prepare. Not a curator, but the collective of artists from Indonesia, the world art exhibition in 2022 to forward. What does this mean for the city of Kassel and the art – a view.

“Ruan-Who?” The surprise was great when the search Committee of documenta announced at the end of February of its decision. Ruangrupa, a group of artists from Jakarta, had not the otherwise globally interconnected art world partout on the screen. The two ruangrupa representative, Radi raccoon and Ade Darmawan, in a good mood in the cameras and smiled. The Surprise was a success!

Three weeks after the announcement of the Sensation of the studied architect raccoon and ruangrupa Director Darmawan, art, graphic designers are left back in their homeland. Leave you have a lot of question marks. Curiosity was “aroused koperasi”, a key term of their documenta-concept, which relies on exchange, networking and dialogue – was the however, “not only in a classical exhibition context”, such as it is. Instead, the Indonesians plan, with the Kassel art scene, with schools, hospitals and universities to work together.

Documenta Director-General Sabine Schormann

What “could mean koperasi”, explained Sabine Schormann, the documenta Director-General. It ruangrupa was important to find examples of art, “in reality, a something”. Such a Koperasi-projects can be anywhere in the world, Schormann, but the results would be presented “in any Form” in Kassel. Everything remained rather vague. “We don’t know very much yet,” said raccoon, “but we are a long time to work here.”

Cloven Echo

No wonder that the new documenta Director has triggered a divided Echo. While a forward to fresh, non-European Wind for Kassel holds some of the appeal of ruangrupa, at best, a joke. Kolja Reichert about in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) “very surprised” about the choice of the collective that “knows no one and knows the documenta and its history”. Even the social orientation of the team was not so revolutionary. Catrin Lorch of the süddeutsche Zeitung, gave the step, however, for “brave”. Swantje Karich from the “world” was about a pleasant “humanistic tone” of the group of artists. In the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” appreciated Christian Saehrendt the choice of the Indonesian collective, as a “risky, but to be welcomed”. He asked: “Is ruangrupa show in Kassel, Germany, a strong art exhibition, or the next documenta is lost in a variety of socio-cultural projects between Java and Northern Hesse?”

“KAOS” of ruangrupa (Istanbul biennial, 2005)

Surprise visit in Jakarta

Understandable that the Feuilleton of the FAZ, the temptation could not resist to send a Reporter to Jakarta-South and feel the ruangrupa-people on the Tooth. The create the? The FAZ report, full of Doubt. The conclusion remains unwritten: The documenta is too big for ruangrupa.

Stefan Kraus, Director of the archiepiscopal art Museum Kolumba in Cologne, met Reserved by ruangrupa with a conscience: “I think it is an incredible task before this group of artists,” says Kraus. You have asked a group, and not a curator, he said this was “remarkable”. Recently, Kraus is with the Berlin Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge prize for unconventional art education has been excellent.

“We have spent 18 years together as a collective”, the group of artists on a request from Jakarta. “Everyone at ruangrupa comes from different backgrounds and disciplines. So we have in the artistic process, different perspectives”. Stefan Kraus is used to curate in the collective, he says. “This protects against one-dimensional Thinking.” Together, you can find criteria and quality define.

The curator of the Breakfast table

Kolumba-Director Stefan Kraus

The task of the curator was to give the art an optimal appearance. “It is not so that something Nice comes up as a curator and the art addiction illustrated the Whole thing.” The good curator must be in addition to the art almost invisible. Nevertheless, says the art historian, “must, ultimately, turn a head for the thing to communicate to people”. If you have now chosen in Kassel the artist to make the artist something, then it was exciting. The concept of Curating, Kraus, had already overused: “If you are in the morning in front of the mirror and decide what shirt to wear, it is a curatorial decision. Each Breakfast table is not curated.”

Three years remain in the core ten-piece collective now, before the curtain rises for the documenta 15. The expectations are high. Almost a Million visitors to the world art show attracted last to Kassel. If the Northern Hessian province of metropolis mutates every five years, the hub of the contemporary art, it is at least as important as the art Biennale of Venice and the participation of an accolade for any artist. For artists as curators is, however, what Karl Valentin once said tongue-in-cheek: “art is beautiful, but a lot of work.”