ruangrupa
Extended Living Room: Space and Conversation
In many of our practice, not only has ruangrupa often worked in different contexts, but we also have invited people from various contexts to Jakarta many times. Every time, we question not only what we can bring to the place and the community that we are visiting, but also how to conduct meaningful meetings, dialogues, and exchanges. How should we handle new working patterns and approaches, speculations, as well as uncertainties? How can we learn from a new negotiation and encounter? How can we consider misunderstanding more interesting than understanding? Our work is an all-encompassing social, spatial, and personal practice. We started from scratch, building and expanding it naturally through each of our physical lives in the urban setting, creating spaces and initiating everyday live events.
We will share some of our experience in developing the ecosystem as regenerative knowledge and speak about the cooperative platform we develop in Gudskul ekosistem. Moreover, I will explore our spatial and conversational based practice as a translation strategy to bring institutional practice / aesthetics to other context, via few cases in Sonsbeek and Gudskul ekosistem.
ruangrupa
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, technology, 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 (2018&2002), Cosmopolis at Centre Pompidou (2017), Aichi Triennale (2016), São Paulo Biennial (2014), Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2012), Singapore Biennale (2011), Istanbul Biennial (2005). In 2016, ruangrupa curated Sonsbeek 2016: transACTION in Arnhem, Netherland.
From 2015-18, 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 GUD- SKUL: 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.
His works range from installation, objects, drawing, digital print, and video. In 2015, he had his solo exhibition Magic Centre in Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany and in 2016 in Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands. In Gwangju Biennial and Singapore Biennale 2016, he was involved as participating artist. He also contributed in many collaborative curatorial projects: Condition Report (2017), Media Art Kitchen (2013) and Riverscape in-flux (2012) with several South East Asia curators and artists.
With ruangrupa as an artists’ collective platform, he had participated in Sao Paulo Biennal (2014), Asia Pacific Triennial Brisbane (2012), Istanbul Biennale (2005), and Gwangju Biennale (2002). In 2016, he curated Sonsbeek International in the Netherlands. From 2006-2009, he was a member of Jakarta Arts Council and in 2009, he became the artistic director of Jakarta Biennale. Since 2013, he has been the executive director of Jakarta Biennale.
His writing and book editorial works include All for Jakarta – a note on the tenth anniversary of ruangrupa: Decompression #10, Expanding the Space and Public (Journal of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 2011); and 20Kuldesak: Networking, Rebelling, Maneuvering, Moving (Kuldesak Network, 2018). Some international forums he has participated in are Independent Creative Art Spaces Leadership Training, Trans Europe Halles & ASEF (Paris, 2007); Enhancing Asia-Europe Meeting Visibility Through Cultural Visibility, ASEF (Halong Bay, 2010); State of Independence: A Global Forum in Alternative Space, Roy And Edna Disney California Arts (Los Angeles, 2011); Youth Initiative and Civic Engagement Training, UNESCO (Jakarta, 2013); Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society Conference (Surabaya, 2015); Berlin Meeting, Responsibility of Religions for Peace, Federal Foreign Office of Germany and Ministry For Foreign Affairs of Finland (Berlin, 2018) and Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, U.S. Department of State (Washington D.C., 2018).
From 2016–2018, he worked as advisor for Director General of Culture, Ministry of Education and Culture, Republic of Indonesia.
He now lives in two cities, back and forth, Jakarta and Makassar, mainly for family reasons. He recently opened a small library called Riwanua, at Gudside, Jakarta, while continuously running a project initiative called Jalur Timur in Makassar with his fellow researchers, artists, and cultural activists.
