On Lumbung

ruangrupa is a Jakarta-based collective established in 2000 and are curators of the upcoming documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany. As a non-profit organization that strives to support the idea of art within urban and cultural context ruangrupa involves 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 exhibitions, festivals, art labs, workshops, research projects, as well as books, magazines and online-journal publications.

As an artists’ collective, ruangrupa has been involved in many collaborative and exchange projects, including participating in big exhibitions such as Gwangju Biennale (2002 & 2018), Istanbul Biennial (2005), Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (Brisbane, 2012), Singapore Biennale (2011), São Paulo Biennial (2014), Aichi Triennale (Nagoya, 2016) and Cosmopolis at Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2017). In 2016, ruangrupa curated TRANSaction: Sonsbeek 2016 in Arnhem, NL.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. In 2018, learning from their experience establishing Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem and together with Serrum and Grafis Huru Hara, ruangrupa co-initiated GUDSKUL: 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.

For this lecture, members from ruangrupa and GUDSKUL will expand on the concept of the lumbung, an Indonesian term for a communal rice barn which they have developed throughout many years and have manifested in various iterations in their collective practices. For them the lumbung serves as a method for creative and artistic practice.

Speakers:

• Trained as an architect (B.Arch from Universitas Indonesia and M.Arch from Cranbrook Academy of Art), farid rakun wears different hats, dependent on who is asking. A visiting lecturer in the Architecture Department of Universitas Indonesia, he is also a part of the artists’ collective ruangrupa, with whom he co-curated TRANSaction: Sonsbeek 2016 in Arnhem, NL, and currently taking the helmet as Artistic Direction for documenta fifteen (Kassel, 2022).

• Marcellina “Cella” Dwi Kencana Putri is the manager of GUDSKUL. She studied International Relations and has a post-graduate degree in Cultural Anthropology. Previously, she was a producer in Studio Batu, a Yogyakarta-based collective and a serve as a co-curator for OK. Pangan, Media Art Festival (2017), where she found her main interest in food-related. She has never been able to resist having a dessert after a meal, and finds cooking as a therapeutic way to keep her sanity intact.

• Henry Heng Lu is a curator, writer and artist. He is a co-founder of Call Again, a mobile initiative/collective committed to creating space for contemporary diasporic artistic practices. Presently, he is Executive Director/Curator of Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (moderator).

• Melissa Karmen Lee is the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery. She is a social practice curator that has collaborated on a variety of different art practices in Hong Kong and Vancouver (moderator).

This lectured is supported by the Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research (Government of Canada), the Research Offices at OCAD University and Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.