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Solid contribution to art scene lands ruangrupa in documenta 15
Indonesian art collective ruangrupa was chosen to curate documenta, one of the world's most renowned art events.
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Turning point: Indonesian art collective ruangrupa has been selected to be the artistic director of the prestigious documenta 15 art exhibition in Kassel, Germany, in 2022. (Courtesy of documenta/Gudskul/Jin Panji)
T
he Indonesian arts scene was thrust into the limelight with the appointment of art collective ruangrupa as artistic director of documenta, one of the world’s most prestigious art events.
Held every five years, documenta started out in the industrial German town of Kassel in 1955 to bring Germany back into a dialog with the rest of the world after the end of World War II.
Since then, hundreds of artists have taken part in each documenta exhibition that once featured the likes of Wassily Kandinsky and Pablo Picasso, putting it on par with prestigious art events like the Venice Biennale or Art Basel and drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors over the course of the 100-day exhibition.
Ruangrupa made history in February this year by being named the first-ever Asian group and first-ever art collective to curate documenta 15, scheduled to be held from June 18 to Sept. 25, 2022. Ruangrupa also took part in documenta 14 in 2017, setting up the Every Time a Ear di Soun internet radio station for the exhibition.
The decision is also notable as ruangrupa was unanimously nominated by the eight-member International Finding Committee.
Ute Meta Bauer, a member of documenta’s finding committee and founding director of Nanyang Technological University’s Center for Contemporary Art, Singapore, said the true significance of ruangrupa as artistic director remained to be seen, noting that it would come to light when documenta 15 came to a close.
