As part of our Talking Heads series, we reached out to ruangrupa, the curator collective of the previous edition of sonsbeek (2016) and the curators of the upcoming documenta 15 (2022). As with our previous episode, it was a freewheelin' conversation, this time about ruangrupa’s curatorial practice —a practice that is rooted in experiment, collectivity, trust, while also discussing the limits and possibilities of archives.
“Working with ruangrupa and working collectively is an unlearning process because it’s not a professional setting, it’s not that rigid structure. Sometimes you don’t really know what to do because the idea is to make initiative, the idea is to be given room to fail. You are given room to experiment and to fail. And I think that idea keeps on resonating, even up until now, with Good School. Because making an institution is also a form of art practice, let’s say. And making an institution can also be an experiment, in where we can fail, where it hasn’t become a luxury to fail, and to have people trusting you, allowing you to have that room and space.”
— Gesyada Siregar
About 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.