We LOVE ruangrupa and the important, decolonial work they have energetically, sharply, playfully, resourcefully and most of all generously shared for so many years with so many others, including the extended, non-nuclear DAI family (when, in 2015 and 2016, we were cheerfully collaborating in Jakarta, Arnhem and beyond). Over the summer of 2022 we have felt uplifted and inspired by documenta 15 in Kassel: the perfect antidote to art-worldly greed and exceptionalism. We have been moved by the ways in which the beautiful Lumbung Community has been resilient in the face of countless attacks (without giving up on openness, inclusivity, exchange, learning and un-learning). But the limit has now been reached: together with our friends we are sad, angry and tired. We urge you to UNDERSIGN the letter to Christian Geselle, Angela Dorn, Susanne Völker, Claudia Roth, the Supervisory Board and the Shareholders of documenta. We vigorously support its content as we stand in solidarity. Please read & sign the letter here.
September 10th, 2022: READ THE FULL LETTER INCLUDING SIGNATURES
Further reading:
Mi You: What Politics? What Aesthetics?: Reflections on documenta fifteen
Ana Teixeira Pinto:This-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things
15.9.2022: STATEMENT OF FINDING COMMITTEE
July 27, 2022: Letter from the Lumbung Community
From a “São Paulo Jewish collective”: https://www.e-flux.com/notes/480764/from-a-so-paulo-jewish-collective-frankfurter-allgemeine-zeitung-s-false-rumors-about-documenta-and-anti-semitism
Interview with Taring Padi: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/taring-padi-collective-interview-2155080#.YvQ55pIdycE.twitter
A. Dirk Moses: http://newfascismsyllabus.com/opinions/documenta/the-documenta-indonesia-and-the-problem-of-closed-universes/
Eyal Weizman: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n15/eyal-weizman/in-kassel
Julian Stallabras: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/stallabrass-contemporary-art-market-audience/