ruangrupa is a Jakarta-based contemporary art collective that provides platforms for exhibitions, workshops, critical thinking, and research. ruangrupa is a non-profit organisation that is considered one of the most important contemporary art institutions in Indonesia. In 2022, ruangrupa curated documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany.
Read Moreruangrupa was founded in 2000 by seven Indonesian artists. The founding members attended college together in the 1990s and each maintained their own individual practices as artists, researchers, architects, and designers.
As the authoritarian era in Indonesia ended, ruangrupa looked to new freedoms, where they could explore and establish interdisciplinary platforms. The collective shared dissatisfaction with the lack of cultural spaces available in south Jakarta at the time and sought out new creative environments that encouraged artistic collaboration and critical thinking.
The collective's varied social, economic, and cultural backgrounds contribute to the diverse experiences and dialogues ruangrupa offers. Since the early 2000s, ruangrupa has facilitated exhibition spaces, publishing services, festivals, events, workshops, and research spaces to help support creatives, communities, and institutions throughout Indonesia.
OK Video (2003–ongoing) is a video art festival organised by ruangrupa in collaboration with the Indonesian National Gallery. It was Indonesia's first video biennale and presents the work of artists from a variety of different countries. For the first biennale in 2003, the exhibited video works were grouped under four themes: Bodies, Identities; Politics; Mass Culture; and Private Space, Public Space.
ruangrupa established the video festival to create an experimental platform for artists specialising in non-narrative video works and audio-visual language. OK Video is accompanied by a diverse public programme, including public workshops, artist talks, and discussions aimed at facilitating important dialogues in Asian and Western contemporary art.
In 2019, ruangrupa were invited to curate documenta fifteen, taking place in Kassel, Germany in 2022. It was the first time an Asian group and an art collective were invited to curate the international exhibition.
For documenta fifteen, ruangrupa's interdisciplinary team focused on social engagement and the importance of local communities within creative spaces. The collective explored contemporary concerns embedded in capitalism, patriarchal constructs, and socialism through the lens of a contemporary art fair.
ruangrupa established a physical space called ruruHaus for documenta fifteen. ruruHaus is a creative space made for experimentation and collaboration and is described by ruangrupa as a kind of living room for artistic strategies and curatorial processes. At the centre of Kassel, ruruHaus invites its visitors to practice, narrate, meet, distribute, sustain, and simulate with creative individuals.
DECOMPRESSION#10 – Expanding The Space and Public (2010) is an exhibition ruangrupa organised to celebrate the collective's tenth anniversary. The exhibition presented the journey of ruangrupa since its beginning in 2000 and considered the developments of contemporary society's ideas regarding social and cultural movements.
DECOMPRESSION#10's curriculum included exhibitions, film screenings, seminars, workshops, public space art commissions, and collaborative projects between a wide range of artists and creatives. The exhibition was not only a space for sharing and experiencing knowledge, but also a space for reflection on the changes occurring in artistic practices over the preceding decade.
ruangrupa have exhibited in and curated exhibitions and biennales all over the world.
Selected exhibitions include documenta fifteen, Kassel (2022); Speculative Collective, 14th Sharjah Biennial (2019); DECOMPRESSION#10 – Expanding The Space and Public, Jakarta, Bandung, and Yogyakarta (2010); OK Video, National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta (2003).
ruangrupa's website can be found here and their Instagram can be found here.
Phoebe Bradford | Ocula | 2022
