Ruangrupa is a Jakarta-based art collective consisting of ten core representatives and an unfixed number of members. Loosely translated from Bahasa Indonesia as \u201ca space for art,\u201d ruangrupa (abbreviated as ruru) emerged in the late 1990s amidst a grassroots Indonesian cultural renaissance that followed the end of a 31-year military dictatorship. Over the next two decades, the collective built itself an extensive and diverse membership of artists, architects, writers, activists, and researchers, spearheading events and socially-minded projects like a research archive, radio station, publishing wing, and public learning space, and running local and international workshops, exhibitions, and festivals, including several international biennales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2019, ruangrupa was appointed artistic director of documenta fifteen, which is scheduled to take place in 2022 under the title lumbung <\/em>(literally translated as \u201crice barn\u201d), a principle focused on the sharing of resources and encompassing an entire cosmology of social etiquette that advances art as a sustainable tool for community-building. With close to seventy other collectives from around the world already confirmed as participants, ruangrupa is paving the way for future innovations in the global art world. For the first time, documenta will be led with a decentralized, partnership-based approach focused on critical social analysis, inclusivity, and real-world impact. Following projects like Speculative Collective<\/em> (2019) and SONSBEEK\u201916: transACTION <\/em>(2016), ruru\u2019s artistic approach explores the connection between knowledge sharing and agency through direct practice. For Speculative Collective<\/em>, it paired with two other Indonesian collectives \u2014 Grafis Huru Hara and Serrum \u2014 in order to decentralize knowledge production through workshops and role play. Fittingly, ruangrupa plans to host its upcoming documenta projects in non-traditional sites such as schools, hospitals, and universities, relying on the logic of the commons to reject the individualism of modernism and propose solutions for the injustices of colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy. In its utopian but ultimately timely responses to our times, this approach to creative practice rejects art as an experience in isolation from other fields of knowledge, instead employing it as an effective tool to build a stronger global ecosystem for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n