Make friendship, it is art
On artists collectives engaging in the urban now
Judith Couvee, 1430637
judithcouvee@gmail.com
Prof. Dr. K. Zijlmans
Dr. L. Bertens
MA thesis Arts and Culture: Art of the
Contemporary World and World Art
Studies, 2014-2015
Word count: 18.095
Table of contents
Introduction
p. 3
1
The phenomenon of the artist collective
p. 9
2
Artistic Practices in the Space Between:
3
ruangrupa’s intervening experiments in the urban space
p. 21
Images
p. 27
Reconciliation Between Opposites:
Huit Facettes Interaction’s interdisciplinary collaborations
4
and social interventions
p. 29
Images
p. 34
The Convergence of Time and Space:
Raqs Media Collective’s multi-media artworks and workshops
p. 35
Images
p. 41
Conclusion
p. 44
Images
p. 47
References
p. 49
Introduction
The collective is back. In a world largely dominated by individualism and economic strategies
there is a tendency to be discerned towards collectivity, participation, togetherness and
community. In response to individualization, the ever-growing gap between rich and poor,
urban and rural, and the powerful processes of globalization, from 2000 onward there has been
an increase of critical artistic formations that foreground collaborative and collective modes of
production. Through partnerships, either permanent or non-permanent, artists aim to intervene
in and respond to developments in their local and national environment, as well as on a
worldwide level, and to make joint works. According to Nigerian art critic and curator Okwui
Enwezor, collectivization through artistic production tends to arise at moments of political
crisis, and has therefore occurred throughout the history of art. Such crises often lead to a reevaluation of artistic practices and a reconfiguration of the position of the artist in relation to
society.1
Collaborative and collective artistic practices take various guises. Think of the artist run
space, the artist project, the artist platform, the artist co-op, and the artist collective2, to name
just a few forms of united labor among the many. The artist collective will be the focus of this
thesis. Often engaging in an artistic practice that builds on local concerns, tackling questions of
identity, history or globalization, collectives find new ways to assert themselves more
effectively into cultural spaces and institutions. Related to the current political moment, it could
be argued that the phenomenon of the artist collective is gaining strength. As a group, uniting
different perspectives and views, and sharing ideologies, the members are more able to
effectively respond to the rapid changes in today’s social, cultural and political fields, while
being involved in direct action at local levels, expressing an urge to relate practices of art to
culture, society, politics and experiences of everyday life.
How do artist collectives engage and intervene in urban, suburban and rural spaces,
regarding changes in social, cultural and political fields? This question is central in my thesis.
Researching different artist collectives, I will explore key concepts concerning their shared
artistic practice, while emphasizing notions of transcultural exchange, critical and researchbased art practice, art related to the socio-political context in which it originates, and art
practice as an interventional process. It revolves around three artist collectives, namely
ruangrupa from Jakarta, Indonesia, Huit Facettes Interaction from Dakar, Senegal, and Raqs
Media Collective from Delhi, India.3 I will focus on the involvement with the urban space, as well
Enwezor, Okwui, ‘The Production of Social Space as Artwork’, p. 225
Both artist collective and artists’ collective is a correct spelling. Here artist collectives will be used. The
same applies to the other terms.
3 From here on, an abbreviated form will be used in reference to Huit Facettes Interaction and Raqs Media
Collective, namely Huit Facettes and Raqs, which is the popular version of their names.
1
2
3
as the treatment of participatory interaction as a form of creative praxis, as the artist collectives
emphasize these particular aspects. The aim is to research theories on the experience of the
urban space and collaborative artistic practices, to create a dialogue between both these
theories and the aforementioned key concepts, and the work of ruangrupa, Huit Facettes, and
Raqs. Important to their form of art making are notions such as a plurality of roles,
interdisciplinarity, progressiveness, being positioned in the center of society, and new ways of
institutionalization.
Corpus
The past fifteen years more and more artists around the world have turned to collective ways of
production, however, the subject is still relatively new to the art historical discourse, as no
major research of the phenomenon has been done yet. Nevertheless, during my research I came
across a few projects that are very worthwhile to mention. One of them is RAIN, the
Rijksakademie Artists’ Initiatives Network. In the late 1990s and beginning of 2000 RAIN was
initiated by former residents of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam,
among them artist and director of ruangrupa Ade Darmawan. It is a collaborative experiment
and a network of artist initiatives from all over the world, but mainly countries in Africa, Asia
and Latin America. The participating groups see RAIN as “an opportunity to bring movement
and energy into the individual, relatively isolated context and to unleash counter-forces within
the global art domain – counter movements of artists from non-Western contexts who get a
voice and build new ways of working and new strategies”4, and thus stimulating the exchange of
art and ideas between artists on different continents. The network in association with the
Rijksakademie has published two books, Silent Zones (2000) and Shifting Map (2004).
Another project that sparked my attention is the exhibition Kollektive
Kreativität/Collective Creativity at the Fridericianium in Kassel, Germany (2005). Curated by the
Croatian independent curatorial collective What, How and for Whom (WHW), the exhibition
explored notions of communal work and collective production, with regard to contemporary art
and discourse. It attempted to outline different forms of collectivity and group work, featuring
both work of various artist collectives and collaborative projects between artists, including
Gilbert & George and Guerilla Art Action Group. To accompany the exhibition, a catalogue was
published, with contributions by Charles Esche, British curator and director of the Van
Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Angelika Nollert, art historian and curator from Germany, and
Viktor Misiano, curator and art critic based in Moscow, among others.
The words ‘collaborative’ and ‘collaboration’ derive from Latin, meaning as much as ‘to work
with’ or ‘work together’. The heading of collaboration covers several art forms, all defined by
4
Flentge, Gertrude, Shifting Map, p. 9
4
the relationship between participants and the method of working, such as interaction and
participation. Researching this particular art practice is one of the perspectives in this thesis.
The emergence of artist collectives often responds to the specific needs of a particular
infrastructure. They can be seen as a form of inquiry, as they often focus on non-object based
art. Because of the way they are structured, namely, bottom-up and as a collection of different
perspectives and backgrounds, artist collectives are able to engage in socio-economic problems,
for example within the urban environment. Another perspective in this thesis is the experience
of the urban and suburban space, as the collectives base their practice in the exploration of a
relationship with their specific environment. Here, the term urban space is conceived as the
major characteristic of a contemporary metropolis, namely, its crowded streets, loud traffic,
omnipresent commercial advertising, the contrast between rich and poor neighborhoods, the
urban and suburban area’s, and the specific cultures that arise from these characteristics that
make up the bustling city. The artist collectives discussed in this thesis demonstrate an activist
approach to urban reform, exemplified in their projects and the imagination of a different, more
humane and creative city. Art is perceived as a way to reproduce and reinvent the dominant
urban order, emphasizing its possible transformative role. Furthermore, the phenomenon of the
artist collective reflects the engagement with contemporaneity, a term that refers to the fleeting
present and the capability to be rooted in this very present. To work in conjunction with other
artists reveals much about the state of the art world.
Theoretical framework
The theoretical framework of this thesis draws from urban theories and studies on collaborative
art, while mapping and analyzing the three artist collectives in their practice, interventions, and
projects. The aim is to set up an exploratory project with a possible outlook to future artistic
practices, offering an analysis rather than giving an overview, and creating a dialogue between
ruangrupa, Huit Facettes, and Raqs as case studies, and the theoretical framework. I will explore
theories concerning art and the urban space, as proposed by Finish writer and researcher
Saara Liinamaa, and researched in the book Take Place. Photography and Place from Multiple
Perspectives, edited by Dutch art historian Helen Westgeest. Furthermore, the concept of
collaborative art, developed by American professor of Art History and writer Grant Kester, will
be researched in relation to the collectives. Their ideas function as an experimentation of
different readings of the artist collectives.
Liinamaa specializes in the study of urban art practices, as her research and publications
address the multiple intersections of contemporary art, urban studies, and social theory. In her
article ‘Contemporary Art’s ‘Urban Question’ and Practices of Experimentation’ she states, “art’s
urban practices can reproduce and reinvent the dominant urban order; they can realize the city
5
as surface and depth, and they can work with and against hegemonic cultural globalization.”5
These developments can be seen as art contributing to the way we organize and live in cities, as
well as showing the creative engagement of artists in what a city has to offer. The book Take
Place. Photography and Place from Multiple Perspectives reflects on the theme of place in
contemporary art. Trough several essays, it brings together various scholarly disciplines, such
as art history, social geography and the history of architecture, as well as artistic disciplines,
such as performance, multi media art projects and installation art. Mainly focused on
photography, I used this publication as background information on the role of place in
contemporary art.
In his books Conversation Pieces: The Role of Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art (2005) and
The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context (2011), Kester
examines collaborative and collective art practices. In his first book, he coined the term dialogic
art. He states that through dialogic art and collaborative art an advancement of the agency of
participants takes place. Kester sees “a shift from a concept of art as something envisioned
beforehand by the artist and placed before the viewer, to the concept of art as a process of
reciprocal creative labor.”6 Thus, the traditional perception of the artwork is challenged. Lastly, I
draw from primary sources, such as written work by the artist collectives themselves, which is
either published on their websites or in on- and offline journals. Primarily used in the
exploratory phases of my research, these articles helped shaping my ideas concerning the
subject of my thesis. Both ruangrupa and Raqs have interesting and extensive websites, used
almost as an extension of their art, if you will.
Structure of thesis
This thesis is divided in four chapters. The first chapter ‘The Phenomenon of the Artist
Collective’ introduces the concept of the artist collective. It includes a discussion of the different
aspects of collaborative and collective art practices, in order to find and form a definition of the
artist collective. Furthermore, it consists of a brief historical sketch of these specific art
practices, describing preceding movements in the art historical discourse. The chapter’s main
focus involves an extended meditation on the significance and meaning of collaborative and
collective art practices. Concluding with an introduction of the three artist collectives,
ruangrupa, Huit Facettes and Raqs, as well as an introduction of the urban theories and studies
on collaborative art, this chapter will function as a basis for the following case studies.
Building on the theoretical framework established in chapter 1, the second chapter
‘Artistic Practices in the Space Between: ruangrupa’s intervening experiments in the urban
space’, provides a detailed discussion of various projects by ruangrupa. How does the artist
5
6
Liinamaa, Saara, ‘Contemporary Art’s ‘Urban Question’ and Practices of Experimentation’, p. 531
Kester, Grant. The One and the Many, p. 3
6
collective intervene in the urban space of Jakarta? The chapter discusses their work in relation
to artistic experimentation with urban life, creating a dialogue between ruangrupa’s art and
theories coined by Liinamaa, as well as relating it to the concept of transculturality.
Whereas the urban theories provide a primary frame for the discussion of ruangrupa’s
projects, collaborative art practices are a central theme in chapter 3, ‘Reconciliation Between
Opposites: Huit Facettes Interaction’s interdisciplinary collaborations and social interventions’.
It examines the workshop-based practices, conducted by Huit Facettes in Senegal’s rural and
suburban areas. How do Huit Facettes’ social interventions empower communities and bring
together opposites? Building on ideas of Grant Kester and Okwui Enwezor, the chapter aims to
analyze the artist collective’s work in relation to collective and interdisciplinary practices.
In chapter 4, ‘The Convergence of Time and Space: Raqs Media Collective’s multi-media
artworks and workshops’, the emphasis shifts back to urban theories. It discusses Sarai, an
interdisciplinary program for research and practice on media, cityscape and urban culture in
Delhi, which the artist collective cofounded. Furthermore, Raqs’ work is related to the concept
of contemporaneity.
During the study that preceded this thesis, it became clear that the emergence of collaborative
and collective art practices is omnipresent, in particular the rise of the artist run space and
artist collective or initiative. More and more artists decide to join forces, and work together on
project basis or in a permanent structure. The question as of why so many artists turn to this
mode of production as well as the motivation to better understand it, has been on my mind for
some time, and not being able to find an answer that easily, it formed a good starting point for
my research. That being said, I want to direct my research towards the meaning and impact of
collaborative and collective practices, rather than studying the reason why artists decide to join
forces in their creative endeavor. Together with a profound interest in everything that is far
away from my hometown Amsterdam in general, as well as the dynamics of contemporary city
life in particular, this brought me to focus on ruangrupa, Huit Facettes and Raqs. The three artist
collectives, that also operate beyond their cities of base as they conduct projects around the
world, are very diverse in their ways of working, subjects and origin, but yet also show several
similarities, as they all engage in the urban space regarding its rapid changes and see the
creative interaction involved in group work as part of their artistic practice. This is a
thoroughly global phenomenon that extends from ruangrupa’s artistic urban experiments in
Jakarta, Huit Facettes’ village-based collaborations in Dakar, and Raqs’ work with Delhi’s
communities, and beyond. The way they aim to create a different, more humane and creative
society through their work, provides a glimpse of an exciting, and maybe even hopeful and
positive, future of art. The goal of this thesis, in the end, is to draw attention to the importance
of the artist’s agency, as my theoretical research is build upon the artworks, creative choices
7
and projects made by the artist collectives, not the other way around. The art does not function
as a mere illustration of the framework I have created, but forms the starting point of my
explorations. Moreover, the works and projects by the artist collectives have sparked my
interest and curiosity into art that reaches beyond the confined space of the exhibition and
museum. In a way, this transcends the case studies, addressing the topic of the importance of art
in society.
The image on the cover depicts a mural on the base of an overpass in Jakarta, a public art
collaboration between ruangrupa and Indonesian artist Aprilia Apsari. It says, “kamu mau
kemana? Langsung pulang ya”, translated as “do you want to go? Yes, straight home”, referring
to the busy traffic above the artwork.
The title for this thesis is inspired by and borrowed from ruangrupa’s motto, as
explained by director and artist Ade Darmawan, during his Freedom Lecture in De Balie,
Amsterdam on October 23, 2014. Referring to the importance of building relations for change in
all parts of society, and the creation of transcultural communication, their motto is: “make
friendship, not art”.
8
1 The phenomenon of the artist collective
The past decade has witnessed the emergence of more and more collaborative and collective
approaches in contemporary art, which continues to expand in the art world today. This
development is evident across a wide range of practices, ranging from biennial-based works to
more activist oriented projects. Descending from socially engaged art in the 1960s, collaborative
and collective art practices are exhibitions, projects or artworks, characterized by a group of
people working on a concept together. The heading of collaboration covers several art forms, all
defined by the relationship between participants and the method of working, such as
interaction and participation. This chapter discusses several aspects of this specific kind of
collaborative work in contemporary art. A primary concern here is to define the artist collective
and to give a brief historical sketch. Furthermore, ruangrupa, Huit Facettes and Raqs, will be
introduced, as well as the theories this thesis builds on.
Defining the artist collective
Collaborative art projects are often initiated to stimulate social change and political action in
communities, or when artists work towards shared aims, creating projects and art that build on
the dynamics of a group. Obviously, there are different reasons as to why artists work together.
Collaborations can be initiated because the artists share basic and practical needs, such as
materials or a workspace, and a common understanding of art and production, or they follow
the same ways of living, ideologies, aesthetic and political views and are organized in terms of
common values. These aspects are often found in artist initiatives and artist run spaces, where
the focus is on forms of joint organization, aside from individual careers. Here, collaboration
does not have to be at the core of the artistic practices. The concepts of the artist initiative or
artist run space can be seen as an umbrella name for all activity, generated by artists, ranging
from, for instance, the setting up of an art gallery, a platform or network or the creation of
programs for exchange between artists. This type of collaboration emphasizes a flexible and
non-permanent form of collective art practices, often on a project basis instead of a long-lasting
alliance. An example of such an artist run space, that foregrounds flexible collective art
practices, is the Amsterdam-based W139. This presentation and production space for
contemporary art was founded in 1979, by a young group of artists aiming to create an
alternative for the formal gallery spaces and museums.7
Australian artist and writer Charles Green describes collaborative practices in the form
of long-lasting alliances, in his book The Third Hand: Collaboration in Art from Conceptualism to
Postmodernism (2001). Exploring the work of Marina Abramovic and Ulay, and Gilbert and
George, among others, he mainly focuses on artists who work in teams of two, linked through a
7
Information found on the website of W139 [http://w139.nl/en/about/], accessed on 15th of June, 2015
9
personal relationship as well as an artistic one. According to Green, the concept of the third
artist is created at the intersection of these complex relations, leading to a new and very
particular form of creative praxis.8
The artist collective can be seen as another form of permanent partnership, although
different from the type of collaboration mentioned above. Whereas the concepts of an artist run
space or artist platform are defined by a flexible and non-permanent form of collaborative
practice, and artist teams focus on the dynamics emerging out of a personal relationship, the
artist collective is all about a specific idea of authorship, and the manifestation as a brand.
Moreover, and this is probably the main characteristic, the artist run space or artist platform
operates from one place, as seen in W139, as opposed the artist collective that is not inherently
bound to one place. The artist collective challenges the figure of the singular, auratic artist, and
can therefore be regarded as a negation of the Romantic concept of the artist as an individual
genius. This might be a rather simplistic 19th-Century idea of art, but remains an often-used
template for much contemporary criticism and curatorial practice.9 Nevertheless, an artist
collective is neither simply the sum of different artists.
Exploring the dynamics generated by creative group work, in his article ‘ruangrupa,
What Could Be ‘Art to Come’?’, at that time curator of Chinese art at the Guggenheim Museum in
New York Thomas Berghuis (The Netherlands), writes that artist collectives “expand the pivotal
role of the individual artist and his or her capacity as the presumed sole creator of an artwork,
by instead directing attention towards the significance of collaboration.” The artist collective
counterbalances the idea of the sole creator of an artwork. Elaborating on the specific practice
that takes place within the artist collective, he states “here, collaboration refers not only to that
occurring between artists, or based on exchanges between artists, curators and their audiences,
but also to the production of actual joint artistic processes based on the artistic identity of the
artist collective.”10 To work together enables the process of making the collective enterprise
visible, turning the artist into a collaborator or mediator. As opposed to flexible and nonpermanent collaborative and collective art practices, the authorship of artist collectives is
represented in the profiling as a group.
Various perspectives, backgrounds and characters define the collective, and lead
towards a specific practice. These interactions and the resulting synergies initiate new creative
possibilities, as well as a thorough questioning of traditional ideas about authorship, also
mentioned above.11 The artist collective presupposes a particular kind of artistry and art
practice, different from those based on the autonomous individual, questioning notions of
authenticity. In general, art is defined on a basis of originality and authenticity, and the artist on
Green referred to by Kester 2011, p. 3
Ibid
10 Berghuis, Thomas. ‘ruangrupa. What Could Be ‘Art to Come?’’, p. 403
11 Introduction to the exhibition Kollektive Kreativitat, Fridericianium, Kassel (2005)
8
9
10
his authority as an individual talent and genius. An enduring legacy of Modernism, this vision is
still very much dominates the art-historical discourse of today. Attempting to deconstruct the
individuality in artistry, the collective practice enables a more interdisciplinary dimension in
contemporary art. Furthermore, collaborative creativity can be seen as a form of resisting the
dominant art system, art market and call for specialization. Artist collectives often working
together with environmental activists, trade unions and anti-globalization protestors, reflect
this interdisciplinary approach to art. Through the collaborations, art becomes “a mode of selfreflexive analysis and critique that can be applied to virtually any system of signification, such
as individual or collective identity, institutional discourse and visual representation”, as Kester
argues.12 This vision foregrounds art’s ability to destabilize and critique conventions, and
emphasizes the value of creative collaboration for the aforementioned different influential
systems within society.
Therefore, it could be argued that the aim of the artist collective is not to create an
object-based artwork that exists in, for instance, the context of an exhibition, but to create
collaboration- and project-based artworks that go beyond the unity of action, time and place.
Kester explains “the collaborative and collective projects differ considerably from conventional,
object-based art practice. The participant’s engagement is actualized by immersion and
participation in a process, rather than through visual contemplation (reading or decoding an
image or object).”13 This immersion (being almost submerged and blended in an artwork,
through involvement and contribution to a project or work) and participation of both the artists
and the viewer is emphasized in the process and experience of collaborative interaction itself.
Consequently, this type of art practice does not specifically focus on the creation of a work,
which is destined to be received in silence and solitude, although that is still possible. It is
through active involvement and contribution of both the artist and participants or public that
these practices seem to initiate and facilitate new networks and new modalities of social
interaction, as a well-known social aspect comes to the fore, namely, the concept of joint forces.
Despite the vast emergence of collaborative and collective art practices around the
world, there are also critical aspects that need to be taken into account, regarding the
structures, motivations and aims of these practices. The disappearance of a sole creator in favor
of the collective can be seen as negative, when it comes to conformist demands caused by
collaboration. Individual participants become more or less invisible, while the author remains
predominately unclear. Nevertheless, this fact can be used as an artistic statement, making the
importance of a visible author insignificant. On the other hand, through collaboration, various
groups or specific social problems are appropriated for artistic ends, while they may not benefit
directly from participation in certain artistic practices. Notwithstanding this fact, the democratic
12
13
Kester, Grant. ‘Collaboration Art and Subcultures’, p. 16
Ibid, p. 10
11
methods promoted in the name of collaboration could lead to the actual advancement of the
agency of participants, as will be discussed further on in this thesis, in chapter 3 on Huit
Facettes’ art practices.
Historical sketch
The phenomenon of the artist collective has occurred throughout history, ranging from groups
of artists working together as a ‘commune’ in Paris during the 1860s, the socialist collectives of
the Russian Revolution in 1917, to the proletarian theater projects in Moscow and Berlin in the
1920s. Furthermore, the subversive developments of avant-garde movements such as Dada in
the wake of World War I, the radical interventions of Situationist International, and CoBrA’s
international creative collaborations after World War II are part of the historical genealogy of
collectivity in art as well.14 Other examples of artists collaborating include the Surrealists, the
members of Bauhaus, and the international network of artists, composers and designers Fluxus.
The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of movements of alternative spaces (a prefiguration of
today’s artist run spaces) around the world, as well as activist-based practices in relation to
issues of class, gender, and race.
In the introduction of Artistic Bedfellows, Histories, Theories, and Conversations in
Collaborative Art Practices (2008), American artist, art-historian and editor Holly Crawford
writes “collaboration may be a case either of many hands working to make one object, or of
many artists working as part of a collaborative effort, whether working together at one place
and one time, or working together entirely separate in space and time.”15 She points out, and
which is underlined by the aforementioned examples, that “what begins as a collaborative effort
and vision of many, may later become an historical –ism”.16 Thus, Dada, Situationist
International and the Surrealists, to name a few, initially consisted of artists working as part of a
collaborative effort, evolving into an art historical movement over time. What starts small might
become core to the art historical discourse later.
Although collaborative art practices and the artist collective are phenomena of all times,
these precursors do not entirely explain the artist collectives of nowadays. Going back to the
socially engaged collaborative art practices that emerged out of the political turmoil of the
1960s and 1970s, when artists started questioning the essence of artistic production more and
more, one can see similarities with the current situation. The collective as a social unit became
an important counter movement, a model for change, responding to imperialism, moralism, the
indifferent mass culture, hostile art establishment and other hot topics of the 1960s. Kester
claims that the emerging artistic formations served as a ‘protective enclave’, performing a
Enwezor, p. 224
Crawford, Holly. Artistic Bedfellows, p. 13
16 Ibid
14
15
12
defensive function against these hot topics.17 To me, the description of the artist collective as a
protective enclave represents precisely the strength of collaboration, and its resulting in new
possibilities.
The 1980s and 1990s are the decades of a new rise of socially engaged art. Artist
collectives started to experiment with reconfigurations of the artist’s relationship to the
audience. At the core of these new practices was a focus on public space and activist
intervention.18 One of the protagonists of socially engaged art is French theorist, art historian
and curator Nicolas Bourriaud, who coined the term relational aesthetics. Bourriaud defined it
as “a set of practices which take as the theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of
human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space.”19 An
important element in the work of Bourriaud is politics and the role of the aesthetic. He
conceives the aesthetic as a place with a certain freedom, where imagination rules over political
and social constructs, enabling the creation of a moment in which a different structure and
interrelationship between people is possible, defined by him as a microtopia. He claims that
artists are facilitators rather than creators, and regards art as an exchange of information
between the artist and the public, producing a specific kind of sociability. Following Bourriaud’s
definition of relational aesthetics, art is more than a reflection on society and the state of the
world, as art is also an active participant in the (re) production of it. 20
Claire Bishop, British art historian and writer, criticized Bourriaud’s definition of the
term relational aesthetics and introduced participation art. By questioning the types of relations
that are produced in art, she addresses the conditions in which the work is experienced: “if
relational art produces human relations, then the next logical question to ask is what types of
relations are being produced, for whom, and why?”21 Focusing on a specific audience causes the
exclusion of another. She argues, “the relations set up by relational aesthetics are not
intrinsically democratic, as Bourriaud suggests, since they rest too comfortably within an ideal
of subjectivity as whole and of community as immanent togetherness.”22 Furthermore, Bishop
challenges the political and aesthetic ambitions of relational aesthetics and participation art,
calling for new, more compelling and bolder forms of engaged and participatory art and
criticism, by focusing on a less prescriptive approach to both. Relational aesthetics as well as
participation art foreground art as an experience, as both are defined as a set of participatory
encounters rather than gallery-ready objects that are presented to the viewer.
Contemporary artist collectives, also the ones researched in this thesis, can be seen as a
Kester 2011, p. 4
Ibid
19 Bourriaud, Nicolas. Relational Aesthetics, p. 113
20 Bourriaud, p. 115
21 Bishop, Claire. Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, p. 65
22 Ibid, p. 67
17
18
13
contemporary version of socially engaged art of the 1980s and 1990s. Although very specifically
rooted in their own times, there are certain similarities between the historical events and
developments in the art world and the present. Argentinean philosopher Reinaldo Laddaga
argues “artist collectives that we now see emerging are a response to the very specific
configuration of the art scene at the beginning of this millennium, when governments are
selectively abandoning the funding of art, or attempting to tie this funding to criteria of
economic or social efficiency.” Besides governments cutting back on art funding, it is also the
galleries and museums that are increasingly refusing to fund or exhibit projects and artworks
that don’t necessarily culminate in a grand spectacle.23 Furthermore, he elaborates that
contemporary projects of collectivity actively engage in today’s anti-globalization movements.
Looking back at these historical developments, it could be argued that artist collectives and
other collaborative artistic practices tend to emerge during periods of crisis, in times of social
discontent and political uncertainty within society.
Nevertheless, we have to look further than developments in the art world, as the
emergence of the artist collective is not solely initiated by the cutting back of funding, or the lack
of, willing exhibition spaces. According to Laddaga, it is “necessary to situate these initiatives in
the context of processes that take place in other areas of social existence: in the field of politics,
for instance.”24 Through the organization in groups, artists are able to publicly manifest a
discontent, as is seen before in the artist collectives of the 1960s and 1970s, when they often
served as protective enclaves. Laddaga also points out the omnipresent technology of
nowadays. The digitization “enables faster and more constant long distance communication, but
also favors the emergence of new modes of collaborative production.”25 This technological
aspect allows for a transcultural communication between artist collectives, leading to new ways
of collaboration across the world.
The case studies
The official contemporary art institutions are scarcely scattered around the cities of Jakarta as
well as Dakar and Delhi. Moreover, the established institutions often dysfunction as part of the
public domain and are, to a large extend, seen as inaccessible for young artists. However, as
Nina Möntmann argues, in her article ‘Globalisering van Onderaf’, whereas in these situations,
there typically is no easy access to public or private funds either, they nonetheless often lead to
the development of projects characterized by collaboration and exchange.26 With a focus on
collective and interdisciplinary activities, ruangrupa, Huit Facettes and Raqs produce works
Laddaga, Reinaldo. ‘Art and Organization’. In: Shifting Map, p. 17
Ibid, p. 18
25 Ibid, p. 20
26 Möntmann, Nina. ‘Globalisering van Onderaf,’ Metropolis M [http://metropolism.com/magazine/2007no3/globalisering-van-onderaf/]
23
24
14
ranging from the organization of festivals, holding workshops and the creation of multimedia
projects, in collaboration with curators, researchers, activists, NGO’s, urban planners and social
workers, but also collaborations between artists and members of a community, creating and
participating in a project. These collective and interdisciplinary activities have led to ruangrupa,
Huit Facettes and Raqs becoming well known beyond their own cities, and has caused them to
evolve from local artist collectives to an international establishment within the contemporary
art world. All three collectives characteristically go beyond object-based artworks, focusing on
social influences on society, and aiming for an educational dimension in their work. Their
artistic interventions in the urban spaces initiate change and research. Working in different
parts of the world, engaging in the contemporary urban space of their specific locations, I have
chosen them as case studies because of both the similarities and dissimilarities they convey in
their work, projects and practice.
Founded in 2000, by six Jakarta-based artists, who met as students in different cities
across Indonesia’s archipelago – Ade Darmawan, Hafiz, Oky Arfie, Ronny Agustinus, Lilia Nursita
and Rithmi - ruangrupa (in lower case letters) operates on the intersection of an artist
collective and an artist initiative or artist run space. The word ‘ruang’ means space, ‘rupa’ means
visual. They are also known by the name Ruru. According to Ade Darmawan, who is now the
artistic director of ruangrupa, the “main purpose is to reclaim the public space that has been
controlled by bureaucracy, authority and anarchical urban infrastructure.”27 In a political
climate where there is little government support for the arts, this main purpose culminates in
their initiation of art projects that emphasize a relation with the community as well as the aim
to build a critical view and awareness towards social, urban and political issues. Closely
connected to the urban space of Jakarta, their projects support the idea of art within an urban
and cultural context by involving artists and other disciplines such as social sciences, politics,
technology and media. On the one hand, as a collective, ruangrupa produces collaborative works
in the form of art projects such as exhibitions, festivals, workshops, as well as books, a magazine
and an online-journal publication. On the other hand, as an artist run space or alternative art
space, they provide residencies. Here, the focus lies on collaboration between the visiting artists
and ruangrupa, as well as on the exploration and experimentation with the artists’ interaction in
contemporary Jakartan urban life. Their motto, ‘make friendship, not art’ refers to the
importance of building relations for change and the creation of transnational networks and
communication.28 Common to ruangrupa’s different projects and collaborations is the analysis
of the autonomous artistic work against the background of identity, as ruangrupa continuously
aims to create platforms for exchange between people with different backgrounds.
Darmawan, Ade quoted by Kurniawan, Agung. ‘The Rebels from the Living Room’. In: Shifting Map, p.
151
28 Darmawan, Ade. Freedom Lecture at De Balie, October 23, 2014
27
15
Huit Facettes Interaction is a collective of contemporary visual artists, living in
Senegal. Eight individual artists started the collective, hence the name, but it currently has seven
members, including Abdoulaye N’doye, El Hadji Sy, Fodé Camara, Cheikh Niass, Jean Marie
Bruce, Muhsana Ali and Kan-si. The collective was founded in 1995, when the artists traveled to
Belgium at the invitation of a Flemish art center in Turnhout. Their aim is “to free themselves of
the more haphazard and vulgar aspects of artistic means of expression as they are defined from
the traditional western perspective”29, by initiating collaborations between different artists and
organizations from around the world, that take place in Senegal rather than in Europe or North
America. Moreover, Huit Facettes attempts to decentralize culture by setting up cultural,
economic and social development projects in areas with a socially weak position. They focus on
social interventions in the form of workshops, aiming to create a culture for the largely rural
and suburban areas of Senegal. The workshop is regarded as a social form of creative
production and art practice, leading to interaction, which is equally important as the resulting
artworks. In their workshops, participants rediscover their creative abilities and cultural
identities, and become anchored in their own traditions.30 Additionally, Huit Facette challenges
urban-rural binaries, targeting small-scale solutions to urban socio-economic problems. They
first and foremost aim to create centers for cultural, social, and artistic exchanges.
Media practitioners Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi and Shuddhabrata Sengupta began
working as a collective in 1991. As Raqs Media Collective, one of their focuses is on the theme
of the urban space, with the city of Delhi often, but not only, as a subject of their work. The word
‘raqs’ comes form the Urdu, Persian and Arabic word for traditional dance, as performed by
whirling dervishes. Their practice includes new media and digital art practice, curating of art
exhibitions and staging of art interventions in public spaces, documentary filmmaking,
photography, creating installations, media theory and research, writing essays and editing
books, criticism, playing with archival traces, and the enactment of lecture-performances, to
name a few among the many aspects.31 By creating multimedia activities, they explore forms of
inhabiting urban spaces and the making and unmaking of new and old territories. Another
important aspect of their artistic practice, featured in the multimedia activities, is the
implementation of alternative strategies for the production and distribution of information,
making it widely available through free software and across the Internet.32 Raqs (pronounced as
‘rux’) is one of the initiators of Sarai: The New Media Initiative, a program of interdisciplinary
research and practice on media, cityscape and urban culture at the Centre for the Study of
Kane-Sy, Amadou. ‘Beyond Postism’. Springerin.
[http://www.springerin.at/dyn/heft_text.php?textid=1277&lang=en]
30 Rietzek, Gerti. Rattemeyer, Christian (red.). Documenta11. Ausstellung Kurzführer/Exhibition Short
Guide, p. 114
31 Information taken from website Raqs Media Collective
[http://www.raqsmediacollective.net/default.aspx], accessed on 17th of May, 2015
32Rietzek, Gerti. Rattemeyer, Christian (red.), p. 192
29
16
Developing Societies, in Delhi.33 Ever since their foundation, the collective has played a plurality
of roles, ranging from the frequent appearance as artists, to working occasionally as curators,
and sometimes as ‘philosophical agent provocateurs’. With interdisciplinary collaboration at the
core of their practice, the collective has often worked together with architects, computer
programmers, writers and theater directors.34
Theoretical frame of reference
In this final section of chapter 1, I will discuss and explain the urban theories and studies on
collaborative art this thesis draws from. Creating a theoretical framework and a reflection of the
discourse, this forms a base for the dialogue between the artistic practices of ruangrupa, Huit
Facettes and Raqs discussed in the following three chapters, and said theories. In the case of the
urban theories, using a study that specifically deals with the experience of the urban culture and
space, the focus will be on art’s effectiveness as a medium for social transformation, in regard to
rapid changes in social, cultural and political fields. When it comes to the studies on
collaborative art, the advancement of the agency of participants through these practices will be
researched, as well as the process of collective production.
Proliferating around the world today are numerous art practices undertaken in the
name of the city. These range from street art, such as traditional graffiti art work, stencils,
posters and other artistic interventions that literally turn the urban realm into a large canvas, to
the inclusion of artists in teams of urban problem solvers. According to Saara Liinamaa, in her
article ‘Contemporary Art’s ‘Urban Question’ and Practices of Experimentation’, these
interdisciplinary partnerships lead to the ability of art contributing to, for instance, economic
health and social cohesion or small scale appeals for a creativity based participatory
democracy.35 Urban practices are by no means a new phenomenon in art, as there are
innumerable precedents throughout the twentieth century. Mentioned before, in the historical
sketch of the developments of the artist collective, movements and artist networks like Dada
and Fluxus focused on the experience of the city, as did the Surrealists and Situationist
International. Art forms such as site specifity, community art and public art are closely linked to
urban practices as well. Liinamaa proposes a set of shared characteristics that represent urban
practices, in order to clarify what these actually are. Her definition aids in the understanding of
the work of ruangrupa, Huit Facettes and Raqs, as well as underlining the aforementioned
methods of collaborative and collective art practices, conducted by the collectives in question.
Therefore it will be quoted here at length:
Author unknown. [http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/documenta/11/halle/e-raqs-2.htm]
Information taken from website Raqs Media Collective
[http://www.raqsmediacollective.net/default.aspx], accessed on 17th of May, 2015
35 Liinamaa, p. 529
33
34
17
Firstly, ‘a portion, if not all, of the work is conducted, performed, or exists outside formal
gallery spaces – usually in everyday urban spaces and common/public spaces; often, a
particular city or neighborhood is central to the project.’ Second, ‘the project solicits
collaboration, participation, or at the very least a reaction, from a wider public, be it a
specific group or anonymous passers-by.’ Her third proposed characteristic of artistic
urban practices is, ‘the project is process- rather than product-oriented; it has an
ephemeral or situational component. That said, the process may result in a tangible
contribution or object of urban problem-solving.’ Lastly, ‘the project addresses a central,
often marginalized, urban theme or issue. This, of course, relies on an amount of
interpretation and emphasis, but includes a range of possible topics within general
categories such as: everyday life, space and place, community, circulation, migration,
consumption, identity and belonging, memory and history.’36
I regard this proposed set of characteristics as at the core of the practices of the artist
collectives. Furthermore, it characterizes the mixed traditions of artistic urban practices.
However, it should be taken into account that these practices go beyond a mere representation
of the city, where it is treated as an object or site, shifting to the city being treated as a
protagonist. Liinamaa argues “the city as a protagonist stresses that it is a multidimensional and
active agent within its representation.”37 Precisely this treatment of the city as an active agent
constitutes the shift away from artistic representation of urban life to artistic experimentation
with urban life. The city is featured as a relational structure that actively shapes the spaces,
patterns and processes of the artistic practices.38 An approach of the city as a relational
structure is also reflected in the essay ‘Matter Acts. De-forming Space’ by social geographer
Barbara Hooper, part of the book Take Place. She sees place as matter, rather than solely space
or time. According to Hooper it is formed matter (a relational structure) as space and time “have
been spaced/timed into being.”39 This approach is reflected in the work of ruangrupa, Huit
Facettes and Raqs, as they initiate interventions, experiments and a critical interpretation of the
city and urban experience, while blurring the boundaries between art and non-art. The city
intervenes in their work, as they intervene in the city. They aim to evoke and articulate the
imagination of the ungraspable multiplicity of the metropolis, by developing an urban culture,
as ruangrupa does, through the organization of cultural centers for exchange in rural and
suburban area’s of Senegal, as seen in the work of Huit Facettes, or by creating multimedia
artworks in which Raqs takes their city as the subject. They are engaged in city life, space, places
Liinamaa, p. 534
Ibid
38 Ibid, p 535
39 Hooper, Barbara. ‘Matter Acts. De-forming Space’. In: Take Place. Photography and Place from Multiple
Perspectives, p. 192
36
37
18
and experiences.
Notwithstanding the fact that collaboration in art is by no means new, as suggested
earlier in chapter 1 and also mentioned in relation to urban practices in art, more and more
artists have been drawn to this specific mode of production over the past two decades. The
various sorts of collaborations Kester discusses in his book The One and the Many occur
between artists and artists, artists and curators, and artists and others. He focuses on methods
of artistic collaboration as well as analyzing the resulting artworks. According to Kester, there
are currently two significant shifts at work in contemporary art. He explains, as also stated
before in this chapter, that the interest in collective approaches in art is gaining ground. The
second shift Kester sees is a movement away from a textual mode of production toward a more
process-based and participatory experience.40 These shifts symbolize the blurring of boundaries
between socially engaged artistic practices and the avant-garde, as interaction and participation
are more and more emphasized, gradually becoming part of the avant-garde.
In his previous book Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication (2004), Kester
coined the term ‘dialogic art’, which refers to art as an open-ended form of exchange, unfolding
in a process of performative interaction.41 His most recent book expands upon this aspect in art
production, as he focuses on collaborative projects and works that merge community activism
and artistic production. Kester argues “one of the most decisive features of recent collaborative
art practice is a rearticulation of aesthetic autonomy as art practices parallel, overlap with, and
challenge the organizational and ideological protocols of urban planning, political activism, and
other fields of cultural production.”42 This certain fostering of interdisciplinarity could lead to
implications for the autonomy of the work of art and the sovereignty of the artistic personality,
as it influences art production. However, these collaborative and collective art practices are not
a mere illustration of the above-mentioned power structures, as they center on the artist’s
agency, leading to a creation of autonomous works of art, that are just as well rooted in today’s
societies. Hence, one could say that power has reconfigured itself to be decentralized.
Furthermore, Kester explains that collaborative projects and collective systems of art
production are able to “intersect with the demands of activist work, producing symptomatic
interference patterns in the protocols and orientation of each.”43 These projects mobilize
creative agency, as they advocate social justice for their participants. In this respect, one could
think of the workshop as a method of production, emphasizing the agency of its participants.
According to Kester, the workshop is grounded in direct action, responding to the specific needs
of certain areas or communities. It engages in a range of practices, extending from media
training to city planning and environmental workshops, and the recovering and production of
Kester 2011, p. 8
Lind, Maria. ‘The Collaborative Turn.’ In: Taking Matters into Common Hands, p. 25
42 Kester, p. 14
43 Ibid, p. 199
40
41
19
traditional arts and crafts.44
Using the aforementioned theories as a framework, the following chapters aim to
explore notions of artistic experimentation within the urban space, collaborative art,
transculturality, multimedia art, contemporaneity and interdisciplinarity, as I will discuss the
research based art practices and various projects and works by ruangrupa, Huit Facettes and
Raqs. In this respect, the concepts developed by Liinamaa and Kester will function as different
readings of the practices of the artist collectives, in further research of their engaging and
intervening in urban, suburban and rural spaces, regarding the rapid changes in social, cultural
and political fields. Some readings will be more productive than others, relating to the artist
collectives and their practices, as will become clear. Ruangrupa’s projects predominantly appeal
to urban theories and transculturality, whereas Huit Facettes foregrounds collaboration,
evoking a concept of interdisciplinarity, while emphasizing collective practices. Raqs’ work as
an artist collective relates to a concept of interdisciplinarity as well, with their conducting of
urban research in particular. Moreover, their works can be regarded as an expression of the
concept of contemporaneity. After studying the work of ruangrupa, Huit Facettes and Raqs, the
above-mentioned different concepts clearly stood out. As these concepts emerged from their
work, I took them as my starting point and framed them in the following case studies.
44
Kester, p. 96
20
2 Artistic Practices in the Space Between: ruangrupa’s intervening
experiments in the city
Jakarta, one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world, with an estimated
population of over 9.5 million people, is at the core of many of the works and projects by
ruangrupa. A city in which extremes coincide, Jakarta unites ambition and degradation, as seen
in the numerous skyscrapers and high tech shopping malls on the one hand, and poor slums and
almost no public space whatsoever on the other. The oppositions and contrasts are
omnipresent. Operating on the intersection of an artist collective and an artist run space,
ruangrupa’s initial purpose was to create a network of activities centered on social engagement
within the urban context of Jakarta.
To better understand Indonesia’s current situation, I will briefly explain the political
developments preceding ruangrupa’s establishment. The period from 1965 to 1998 is marked
as president Suharto’s New Order regime in 1998. After the fall of Suharto’s New Order, a wave
of change and transition was initiated. During his regime, governmental institutions dominated
social, cultural and political organizations, being particularly powerful through a strict
censorship and bureaucratization of these organizations. A period of reform followed, called
reformasi, in which students played an important role. During the reformasi youth culture was
given previously denied freedoms, leading to the development of local civil initiatives and
alternative media.45 Even though the reformasi gave space to the development of a
counterculture, nowadays Indonesia is still challenged by a hierarchy of state above society.
Artist and board member of Yogyakarta-based Cemeti Art House Agung Kurniawan clearly
illustrates the conditions artists in Indonesia have to deal with:
“…bankrupt economy, intensified crime, racial riots and ethnic cleansing, which are
caused by economical reasons but wrapped up in the guise of religious conflicts, and also
massive corruption, untouched by law. Yet, what seems quite paradoxical is that there is
also an emergence of freedom in many aspects: thought, speech, press, political practice
and many others.”46
The paradoxical development creates a particular situation for the arts, as there is a certain
freedom to critically respond to the negative developments mentioned by Kurniawan.
Moreover, the city has lost many of its social functions in the public space, due to the
development of the economical and commercial activities. However, according to Darmawan the
paradoxical development and the certain loss of social functions in the public space is not solely
Juliastuti, Nuraini. ‘A Conversation on Horizontal Organisation.’ Afterall
[http://www.afterall.org/journal/issue.30/ruangrupa-a-conversation-on-horizontal-organisation]
46 Kurniawan, Agung. ‘The Rebels from the Living Room.’ In: Shifting Map, p. 151
45
21
negative, as it creates the potential to develop creative capacities, making the relation between
visual art systems and Jakarta’s infrastructure an important context of their work.47 The
following discussion of ruangrupa’s projects often follows Darmawan’s explanations or builds
upon his quotes. The reason for this is that, as ruangrupa’s artistic director, he is considered the
main protagonist, being the contact for the media.
Playful urban experiments have the ability to challenge traditional hierarchical (infra)
structures within the city. Liinamaa explains that activism is not equal to artistic interventions
in the urban space, but that they do coincide from time to time. Art’s urban techniques can
provide for critical elaborations and recognition and exposition of problems and needs.48
Notwithstanding the fact that an activist approach of artistic interventions in the urban space is
not always suitable, this approach can be of importance in the understanding of art’s
contribution to everyday city life. Certain projects by ruangrupa convey this ability of
challenging traditional structures in the urban space, in particular the biennial Jakarta 32°C and
the participation artwork Jakarta Habitus Publik.
Urban interventions and experiments
Initiated in 2004, Jakarta 32°C aims to create a critical dialogue between art students, while
introducing their work to the city’s inhabitants. Inviting students from different universities
across Jakarta, the biennial is an attempt to develop an alternative method for the local
infrastructure of art education, offering workshops, presentations, discussions, film screenings
and art exhibitions. Together with these young artists, ruangrupa collaborates in a two-week
event, exploring what forms of creative and critical spaces are needed, with room for public
discussion and the creation of a network across the city. The focus of these collaborations and
explorations is how they view the city space. Darmawan: “We hold public workshops to invite
students to examine the details of city spaces, aspects of visual culture, city designs, local city
regulations, local practices and local economic infrastructure. Students are challenged to offer
their statements, interact with a wider public and speculate on alternative visions.”49 The
traditional hierarchy of state above society is challenged through a project like Jakarta 32°C, as
the students’ practices leads to interaction and exchange between them, the locals and the
official representatives of the city. The artistic interventions, conducted by the art students, and
the resulting interaction and exchange between Jakarta’s inhabitants aim to contribute
positively to everyday city life. In the case of Jakarta 32°C, the focus is on improving art
education, as well as on reshaping ideas of art in the public space.
As public art and its role within the urban space is an important and recurrent subject in
the work of ruangrupa, I would like to discuss the project Jakarta Habitus Publik. Being part of
Darmawan in conversation with Juliastuti.
Liinamaa, p. 537
49 Darmawan in conversation with Juliastuti.
47
48
22
the first Jakarta Art Festival in June 2001, this project aimed to raise the issue of the artist’s
position in society and research the loss of public space in the urban environment of Jakarta,
through a process-oriented project. Preceded by two months of research, documentation and
preparation, ruangrupa invited 50 artists from Jakarta, Bandung, and Yogyakarta, to participate
in activities based on the act of exchange, intervention, negotiation, and negation in the public
space. The participating artists created works centered around four different sections, namely,
site specific, video art, mural, and poster (image 1 and 2). During the project, several problems
with the city government arose, as they didn’t permit the art activities in the public space. The
issue underlined the importance of this project, as it raised questions such as how art and
artists should negotiate within Jakarta’s public space, if this space is still owned by the
authorities and how these matters reflect the inner dynamics of the society.50 Jakarta Habitus
Publik generated collaboration and participation, as well as providing recognition and
exposition of imbalanced power structures, while the authorities were challenged and the loss
of open places within the urban space of Jakarta was emphasized.
As Jakarta 32°C and Jakarta Habitus Publik convey, ruangrupa’s artistic practices are
thoroughly research based. At the core of both projects are several studies, explorations and
inquiries, into the needs of art students, artists and other inhabitants of Jakarta, within the
wider context of the city. Mentioned in the set of characteristics that represent urban artistic
practices (see chapter 1), Liinamaa argues that the artistic work is often conducted, performed,
or exists outside formal gallery spaces. Furthermore, it usually takes place or is presented in
everyday urban and public spaces or focuses on a specific neighborhood. The urban space is
taken as a starting point for the practices, treating the city as an active agent in an artistic
experimentation with urban life. The festival and public art project can be seen as playful urban
experiments that challenge the hierarchical infrastructure in the urban space, as they lead to the
creation of new collaborations, interaction and exchange between different groups and
communities in the city. These art projects aim to contribute to everyday city life, as they go
beyond the traditional and confined exhibition space of, for instance, a museum or gallery while
providing critical elaborations and a recognition of urban problems. Moreover, Jakarta 32°C and
Jakarta Habitus Publik offer the public, the citizens of Jakarta, a new connection with their own
environment.
The concept of conceiving the city as a protagonist, an active agent in experiments with
urban life, offers an interesting theoretical background for many of ruangrupa’s small-scale
artistic practices, as they take place in rented houses, within the dense populated
neighborhoods of Jakarta. Elaborated on by Darmawan during his Freedom Lecture at De Balie,
on October 23, 2014, he explained that these houses are turned into art spaces, offering an
50
ruangrupa. In: Shifting Map, p. 156
23
alternative for the city’s museums and galleries. In this case, Jakarta’s dense populated
neighborhoods can be regarded as the main subject of ruangrupa’s small-scale artistic practices.
Therefore, the rented houses function as ruangrupa’s headquarters. The different rooms of
these houses serve as studios, a library, meeting and exhibition spaces, and a music venue
(image 3). Darmawan says “it is a situation where the artists-cum-activists of an alternative
space – the valid representation of the people – envisage their positions among the people.”51
Quite literally placed in the center of society, the space is imbued with local values, where the
artists directly interact with the local community, and the local community is able to directly
participate in ruangrupa’s activities, such as festivals, workshops, specific national celebrations
and a public cinema.
Inspired by Cemeti Art House, that conducted its activities in a rented house during the
1980s, Darmawan explains that he “began to see these alternative initiatives as medium-scale
public institutions.”52 The direct interaction and participation between the artists and locals,
taking place in ruangrupa’s alternative art spaces in Jakarta’s neighborhood explore the concept
of art as a process of reciprocal creative labor, as they reach the very core of collaborative art.
An aspect of collaborative and collective art practices, this process of reciprocal creative labor is
generated through the reinstallation of social functions in the public space, as seen in the
organization of festivals and workshops, the celebration of national holidays and the creation of
a public cinema. Kester suggests that collaborative and collective art projects differ considerably
from object-based artistic practices. They exist and are maintained through immersion and
participation of the artists as well as the viewers, in this case the local communities. According
to Kester, this constitutes a shift away from the concept of art envisioned beforehand by the
artist and subsequently presented to the viewer. These alternative spaces, created by
ruangrupa, function as a generator of ideas, and not only to present art. Moreover, they are used
in an exploration of social structures in a wider context, namely, that of the city.
Transcultural interaction
Even though a great part of ruangrupa’s interactive work within the public space takes place
within their city of base, many of their projects emphasize a transcultural communication and
exchange, while reaching beyond Jakarta. These projects can be approached as an expression of
the concept of transculturality, a concept originally coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando
Ortíz in 1940. It describes a potentially two way process of exchange between and across sociocultural settings.53 Transculturality defines phenomena involved with mobility, migration,
Darmawan in conversation with Juliastuti.
Ibid
53 Van Damme, Wilfried. ‘Interculturalization in Art: Conceptualizing Processes and Products’, in: World
Art Studies. p. 381. I have chosen to use transculturality rather than interculturality, because to me it
describes an exchange both between cultures and across cultures.
51
52
24
circulation and spatial interconnectedness. Transculturation opens up the process of cultural
exchange, as the focus shifts from the end product to this very process. Ruangrupa’s
participation in RAIN, the Rijksakademie Artist Initiative Network, enables such a transcultural
communication. RAIN is a collaborative experiment, founded by seven different artist collectives
and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, during the late 1990s. Darmawan has been a resident at
the Rijksakademie, from 1998 until 2000. The network consists of Pulse (Durban, South Africa),
Centre Soleil d’Afrique (Bamako, Mali), Trama (Buenos Aires, Argentina), CEIA (Belo Horizonte,
Brazil), el despacho (Mexico City, Mexico), Open Circle (Mumbai, India), and ruangrupa.
According to Gertrude Flentge, coordinator of RAIN, the participating groups see the network as
“an opportunity to bring movement and energy into the individual, relatively isolated context
and to unleash counter-forces within the global art domain – counter movements of artists from
non-Western contexts who get a voice and build new ways of working and new strategies.”54
Thus, the network generates a two way process of exchange between and across different
continents, as the artist collectives are based around the world. Moreover, RAIN causes the
relatively isolated artist collectives to be more involved in the global art domain. For ruangrupa,
RAIN created new ideas on social engagement and cultural diversity in the arts, as well as
becoming an important support structure and a network for interaction and exchange, apart
from their local and Southeast Asian network.
Building upon RAIN’s concepts and aiming to initiate transcultural communication by
creating a network of video artists around the world, the biennial OK Video – Jakarta
International Video Art Festival brings together local and international video art in a thematic
event. The festival features very diverse themes, such as Militia in 2007 and Comedy in 2009. OK
Video in 2015 centers around Orde Baru, Indonesian for New Order and referring to Suharto’s
regime. It is conceived as giving room for meetings and exchange of ideas between artists,
curators and institutions, creating an interdisciplinary network from around the world. The
presence and usage of media technology in today’s society is researched, as well as the social
practices that come along with it.55 Through the festival, ruangrupa aims to raise attention to
the technological power of video, and, arising from this, to trigger critical apprehension of the
moving image. All the events, mainly consisting of video screenings, public discussions and
interactions with video art, take place at various public locations across the city. OK Video favors
the everyday public spaces of Jakarta over the formal gallery space. Furthermore, the festival
aims for collaboration and participation of a wide public, as both local and international artists,
curators and institutions are invited to interact within the urban space of Indonesia’s capital.
Flentge, p. 9
Information found on website OK Video [http://okvideofestival.org/2013/festival/ok-videomuslihat/], accessed on 15th of June, 2015
54
55
25
As ruangrupa provides alternative autonomous art and workspaces as well as creating art
projects that mainly take place in Jakarta’s public areas, fostering collaboration, interaction and
exchange between different groups of people, it could be argued that their artistic practices are
situated in the space between: between formal galleries and street art, between artists and
curators, between artists and the public, and between all of the aforementioned beings and the
authorities. To illustrate ruangrupa’s role in the hustle and bustle that Jakarta is, I would like to
make a reference to Michel Certeau’s ‘Walking in the City’. In this chapter of the book The
Practice of Everyday Life (1980), the French Jesuit and scholar analyses the everyday life in the
city. He compares a view on the city from above to a view from below, which respectively refers
to the strategies of governments, institutions and corporations contrasted by visions and
observations of the public walking the streets. Certeau does this through a description of
himself, standing on the 110th floor of the World Trade Center, looking at Manhattan beneath
him.56 The opposition of above and below evokes the traditional power relations ruangrupa
aims to challenge and deconstruct in their projects. Taking on the role of the public walking the
streets, they foreground social engagement within the urban space, creating a network that
builds upon collaboration between different groups in society. The role ruangrupa plays,
situated alongside Jakarta’s inhabitants, proves to be very difficult as their endeavors of
contributing to the everyday life within the urban space of this colossal city are not always
successful. With the city’s authorities often standing in the way of the realization of art projects,
as seen in Jakarta Habitus Publik, or the lack of public space and a specific urban culture, an
image of David fighting Goliath springs to mind. The small and weaker opponent, in this case
ruangrupa, battles the big adversary, Jakarta’s authorities. As this is not a fight in the sense of
the story of the boy and the giant, there will not be any winners or losers, however it does
illustrate ruangrupa’s various creative actions to change the city. By framing their artistic
interventions in urban theories, as proposed by Liinamaa, they can be read as coinciding with
activism, while providing recognition and exposition of Jakarta’s problems and needs. In doing
so, the playful urban experiments become ruangrupa’s contribution to everyday city life.
56
Certeau, Michel. ‘Walking in the City’. In: The Practice of Everyday Life, p. 91
26
Img. 1 ruangrupa, Jakarta Habitus Publik, 2001
Img. 2 ruangrupa, Jakarta Habitus Publik, 2001
27
Img. 3 ruangrupa, Lonely Market, 2009 (Jakarta)
28
3 Reconciliation Between Opposites: Huit Facettes Interaction’s
interdisciplinary collaborations and social interventions
Moving from Jakarta to Dakar, Huit Facettes’ projects and interventions differ greatly from
ruangrupa’s concepts. Characterized by direct social engagement with local communities, their
artistic practices involve working between urban and rural contexts in Senegal, producing new
networks that link together these previous separated groups.57 Even though Senegal is a
predominately agricultural country, its urban centers are growing rapidly, causing an increasing
social stratification and alienation between the two communities. According to Enwezor, Huit
Facettes’ work is formed by and responds to specific developments in Senegal’s political, social
and cultural discourse, namely “the erosion of the link between the state and formal institutions
of culture; the collapse and disappearance of the public sphere; and the crisis and alienation of
the labor of the artist working within the forced bifurcation of social space between the urban
and rural contexts of Senegal.” 58 These are positions articulated in Huit Facettes’ practices, in an
attempt to produce a common social space, meaning that they focus on the creation of
independent centers for cultural, social and artistic exchanges between different communities,
within the clearly demarcated oppositions that are found in the country.
Notwithstanding the fact that there is an evident social aspect in Huit Facettes’ work, the
members of the artist collective state that they are first and foremost artists, and by no means
social workers. They use their own status and experience, as known international artists, to
contribute to and support the opening up and development of the local art world, as well as
focusing attention on the often overlooked by society, be it communities, areas, or forgotten
traditional arts and crafts practices. The artist collective attempts to go beyond the structures
that determine the conventional value of art, as this is usually tied to commerciality and the
status of the artist, as well as various interactions with social, economic and political views, but
also to geographic zones and trends.59 Activism is conceived as more or less rectilinear directed
to a goal, whereas art, and its experiences, experiments and processes, can be the goal itself.
In this respect, the art practices conducted by Huit Facettes, reflect an interest in the
workshop as a social form of creative production, while focusing on collaborative interaction.
Their workshops-cum-social interventions foster the development of traditional arts and crafts.
As mentioned in chapter 1, following Kester’s statements on the possible intersection of activist
work and collective art production, the workshop enables a direct engagement with the specific
needs of local communities, while emphasizing the agency of its participants. Taking the
contrast between the urban and rural space as their starting point, Huit Facettes attempts to
Enwezor, p. 244
Ibid, p. 235
59 Kane-Sy, Amadou (Springerin)
57
58
29
reconcile an increasing polarity between these two territories of Senegal. Their unique artistic
practices involve taking the participants of their workshops through the trauma of being in a
weak position socially, caused by living in the subordinated rural or suburban areas of the
country.60 In their projects, a form of collaborative interaction takes place, which has the
capacity to transform the consciousness of its participants, to create new networks, and to
disclose new modes of addressing one’s traditions, history and culture.
Interactive collaboration in Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye
The project Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye conveys a form of collaborative interaction. In 1996,
together with the Belgian NGO Vredeseilanden, an organization that supports sustainable
agricultural practices for family farmers, focusing on the global South in particular, Huit
Facettes developed Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye, translated as The Workshops of Hamdallaye. The
project is a long, extended collaboration between the members of the artist collective and the
inhabitants of the small village of Hamdallaye Samba Mbaye, situated in the south of Senegal,
some five hundred kilometers from Dakar near the Gambian border, taking place once every
year. The aim of this project was to recover nineteenth-century traditions of the atelier as a site
of learning, exchange, and shared labor, as well as shifting the emphasis from the privileged
urban space to the subordinated rural areas. In this respect, contemporary urban artists were
brought together with a village community, and a nongovernmental organization.61
With the intention to develop works and projects that responded to the specific culture
and influences of the region, Huit Facettes Interaction invited artists and filmmakers from
different parts of the world, namely, Belgium, Rwanda, Dakar, and Southern Senegal, to
collaborate with the artist collective and the inhabitants of Hamdallaye, for a period of two
weeks. Elaborating on their particular engagement in the urban and rural space, one of the
artists of the collective, Kane-Sy, explains that the program was conceived “as a way of bringing
together contemporary urban artists, a village community, and a nongovernmental
organization. The issues faced in the project could be traced to relationships and ties within a
precisely demarcated social territory – a rural one – since the workshops fostered interaction
between spheres that are traditionally alien to one another.”62 The project, which was both
object-based and participation- and process-oriented, resulted in artworks, such as paintings,
drawings, sculptures and animations. The tangible results were equally important as the arising
transcultural and interdisciplinary communications and interactions. Europeans collaborated
with Africans, Rwandan with Senegalese, and artists with filmmakers, as well as bringing
together rural communities with urban communities.
It is precisely these aspects of the project that convey the ability to experiment with both
Rietzek, Gerti. Rattemeyer, Christian (red.), p. 114
Kane-Sy, Amadou (Springerin)
62 Kane-Sy, Amadou quoted by Kester 2011, p. 97
60
61
30
urban and rural life. As suggested by Liinamaa, urban practices are characterized by a processrather than product-oriented approach. The workshops organized by Huit Facettes focused on
the process of interaction and exchange between traditional opposites. Moreover, the project
had a situational component, as the emphasis has shifted from the city to the countryside.
However, this particular process of interaction and exchange on the one hand, and the shifting
emphasis of location on the other, resulted in a concrete contribution or object of urban
problem-solving, as the workshops initiated a remobilization of crafts practices. A series of
public discussions between the artist collective and the inhabitants of Hamdallaye preceded the
workshops. Organized by Huit Facettes member Fodé Camara, the workshops included fabric
dying, glass painting, embroidery, weaving, carving, sculpture and soap making. Focusing on the
transformation of basic skills into professional skills, the atelier became a center for cultural,
social, and artistic exchanges, with a focus on a learning experience in which both the artists and
the residents of the village participated.63 The remobilization of crafts and exchange between
artists and residents facilitated a certain degree of economic independence and autonomy for
the women of Hamdallaye, as they were able to sell their work in surrounding villages. The
previously male-dominated circuits of arts and crafts production and sale, was now challenged
by the women’s newly acquired economic independence.64 Thus, foregrounding collaboration
and collective practices, Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye symbolizes an interdisciplinary approach to
urban problem solving, as the project empowered the isolated villagers as well as increasing
their economic capacity through artistic skills. Moreover, the relationships between the various
participating groups, which were formed through the project, have been largely maintained
after its conclusion. The artists from Dakar eagerly return to the village every year, to conduct
their art practices together with the inhabitants. A documentation of the project since 1999 was
presented at Documenta11, in 2002 (image 4 and 5).
Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye symbolizes a merge of community activism and artistic
production. According to Kester, an important feature of recent collaborative art practices, such
as this project, is a fostering of interdisciplinarity, as they often overlap with urban planning and
political activism. In his book The One and the Many, he discusses the work of the Senegalese
artist collective, by mainly focusing on and framing them in the collaborations they initiate.
Even though it is a key characteristic of Huit Facettes’ projects, I think they transcend a typical
one-dimensional collaboration between artists, organizations providing help and a local
community, as the clearly demarcated roles disappear. To me, and I do not think this is
specifically emphasized enough by Kester, the strength of Huit Facettes’ projects lies in the
creation of equality. It seems as if all the participants, no matter what their background is, play a
plurality of roles, becoming artist and villager, as well as social worker. By bringing together the
63
64
Kester 2011, p. 97
Ibid, p. 99
31
work of an NGO, an artist collective and village community, Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye centers
both on the artist’s agency and the specific needs of the inhabitants, leading to the creation of
autonomous works, that, at the same time, are rooted in today’s society. However, it is
important to take into account that the artist collective specifically tries to avoid the structure of
traditional NGO development work. As mentioned before, the members of Huit Facettes clearly
state that they are no social workers, articulating their critical view on NGO practices as they
aim to empower local communities from within. Working with existing resources, as seen in the
remobilization of traditional arts and crafts, underlines this statement. According to the artist
collective, the most important thing in the collaboration is the autonomy of the villagers.
Elaborating on the project, Enwezor writes that Huit Facettes aims “to stimulate the agency and
subjective capacity of each participant in the workshop, to help them establish an individual
expression, but above all, it is to avoid at all cost the possibility of dependency.”65 By actively
stimulating the agency and subjective capacity of Hamdallaye’s inhabitants, the project
emphasizes development and empowerment, as well as creating a self-sustainable future for the
village and the ability to respond to the rapid changes across Senegal’s social, political and
cultural fields, without being depended on the help of NGO’s.
Following the success of Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye, Huit Facettes organized a similar
workshop, titled Ici et Maintenant. This project consisted of a collaboration between the artist
collective, a local community, and various artists from around the world collaborating in a
workshop for fine arts, taking place in the village of Joal-Fadiouth a suburban area outside
Dakar, in 1998. Thus, in my opinion, at the core of Huit Facettes’ workshops is the aim to
empower the inhabitants of isolated and underserved villages. By transferring the knowledge of
artistic skills, the artist collective ensures that the villagers retain control of their artistic work.
Furthermore, to breath new life into these traditional skills, helps Huit Facettes bridge the social
distance between them as artists and the villagers who, as Enwezor pointed out, see artists as a
privileged urban elite.66
In light of the different aspects of their workshops, such as the process of reconciliation
between opposites, a fostering of interdisciplinary collaboration, and an emphasis on
development and empowerment, I would like to make a reference to the collective’s process of
decentralization of culture, as mentioned in chapter 1’s introduction of the case studies. This
process operates beyond the relationship between Africa and the “geopolitical privileged
North.” By inviting artists to the “global South”, Huit Facettes organizes collaborations that
respond to an African context, rather than responding to the framework of the international art
65
66
Enwezor, p. 245
Ibid
32
scene, rooted in a Euro-American context.67 Kester uses these terms, “geopolitical privileged
North”, “global South”, and “Euro-American context”, in his discussion of Huit Facettes’ artistic
practice, and I believe they aid in capturing and clarifying a great deal of the artist collective’s
aims in their work. Huit Facettes expands the scale of interaction and exchange from local to
global. Additionally, their collaborations promote a decentralization of culture within Senegal
across the urban and rural communities, as well as bridging the gap between the rich and poor.
Kane-Sy explains the work of Huit Facettes in rural Senegal as “much more the story of a
procedure or process which, as it unfolds has given us (contemporary Senegalese artists living
in the city) a point of anchorage or reconciliation with the part of society that feeds us and from
which we were cut off. One particular elite rejoins its roots in the same socio-cultural context.”68
The work of Huit Facettes offers a renewed interest in suburban spaces and rural communities,
deconstructing the “metropolitan bias” of artistic practices in Senegal.69 Through their
workshops, the existent interdependency of the urban and the rural is explored, while their
opposition is thoroughly challenged, and ultimately reconciled through interdisciplinary social
interventions. By using theories on collaboration as well as the urban space in the approach of
Huit Facettes’ work, their projects can be read as an experiment to develop the subordinated
rural areas in Senegal. Moreover, the endeavors of the artist collective turn out to be successful,
as Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye is an ongoing project with the artists returning to the village every
year. It resulted in their bringing together of different groups, and eventually leading to the
fostering of independency of local communities (both independency in general for the village
and economic independency for the women) as well as facilitating a reconnection for the people
living in the cities to the rest of the country.
Kester 2011, p. 98
Kane-Sy quoted by Enwezor, p. 245
69 The term metropolitan bias is used by Kester 2011, p. 99
67
68
33
Img. 4 Huit Facettes Interaction, Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye, 2002. Documentation of the
workshops in Hamdallaye since 1999
Img. 5 Huit Facettes Interaction, Les Ateliers d’Hamdallaye, 2002.
Documentation of the workshops in Hamdallaye since 1999
34
4 The Convergence of Time and Space: Raqs Media Collective’s multimedia artworks and workshops
Now, back to Asia: Delhi this time. Using a myriad of media, Raqs perceives engagement in the
urban space in a more conceptual manner than ruangrupa and Huit Facettes, as their videos,
high-tech installations, photography, lecture performances, and online and new media projects
explore the city in relation to global culture. Based on their background as documentary
filmmakers and their studies of communication and mass media, as the three members of the
artist collective graduated together from the Mass Communications and Research Center in New
Delhi in the beginning of the 1990s, a key feature of their artistic practices is an
interdisciplinary approach to collaboration. Furthermore, Raqs’ engagement with technology
and the digital age echoes in many of their works, as they frequently treat the subject of the
perception of time and its convergence with space. Accordingly, their work can be regarded as
an expression of the concept of contemporaneity. Australian art historian and theorist Terry
Smith proposes this concept of contemporaneity through which to consider contemporary art.
He researches the relationship between contemporary art and its wider settings, within a world
picture that he believes is characterized above all by its contemporaneity. He states “artists
working nowadays…(have) more concern for the interactive potentialities of various material
media, virtual communicative networks and open-ended modes of tangible connectivity.
Working collectively, in small groups, in loose associations, or individually, these artists seek to
arrest the immediate, to grasp the changing nature of time, place, media and mood today”.70
Smith continues by explaining “this generation of artists begins from their experiences of living
in the present, so the question for them is a matter of which kinds of art might be made now,
and how might they be made with others close to hand.”71 Therefore, being contemporary is
more than just embracing the present; it refers to the way artists treat subjects of time, place,
and ethical action in the world today, through modes of production such as collaboration.
Connections across time and space
Recalling the convergence of time and place in today’s world, the multi-media installation
Escapement (2009) consists of 27 giant, almost identical clocks. Each of them represents a city
in a different time zone, thus creating a conceptual map of the world. However, instead of
indicating time by ticking through the hours, the clocks’ hands point towards words, referring to
a wide range of emotions and personal experiences such as epiphany, anxiety, guilt, duty,
fatigue, indifference, nostalgia, panic, ecstasy, remorse, and fear (image 6 and 7). All human
beings, regardless of their location in either place or time, are able to experience these complex
70
71
Smith, Terry. What is Contemporary Art?, p. 267
Ibid, p. 268
35
emotional states of being. The cities represented in the installation range from world economic
and cultural centers, such as Tokyo, London and Sao Paolo, to war zones, including Bagdad and
Kabul, as well as fictional or ancient cities, like Babel, Macondo and Shangri-La. Another part of
the installation is the sound of heartbeats, familiar noises of everyday communication, and a
video of an expressionless face of a young man. Through a combination of both major
international cities and mythic, imaginary cities, orderly timetables symbolized by the clocks,
and the emotions and human experiences they tick through, contrasted by the video of the
unreadable man and sounds of everyday noises, Escapement poses questions as to what it
means to be living in this time, characterized by the standardizing force of globalization.
The word escapement refers to the mechanism in a clock that controls its hands, marking
the passage of time. A human invention, it connotes both the ‘escaping’ or fleeting moment of
time, as it intensifies our experience of time. Furthermore, the grid that comprises the different
degrees of longitude and latitude, measuring world time, causes different places to share the
same time, because they are located at the same longitude. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of
London and Lagos, cities that share the same time, may experience a complete different sense of
‘now’. According to Raqs, we are “contemporaneous with different times and spaces”, and,
therefore, “contemporaneity harbors the simultaneity of very different ways of life.”72 Apart
from an engagement with time and contemporaneity, Escapement addresses urban themes and
issues, focusing on the experience of everyday life, related to space and place, community,
circulation, migration, and belonging. This installation artwork was part of the exhibition The
Global Contemporary. Art Worlds After 1989 at ZKM in Karlsruhe in 2011. The exhibition
examined the way “in which globalization, both with its pervasive mechanisms of the market
and its utopias of networking and generosity, impacts upon the various spheres of artistic
production and reception.”73 In doing so, the process of globalization was treated as both
shaping and itself becoming a theme in artistic production, as seen in Raqs’ work. Various
thematic fields were singled out, in an attempt to cover the manifold processes of globalization.
With Escapement exhibited under the heading World Time. The World as Transit Zone, the work
articulated a utopian idea of a world united in time and space.74
According to Smith, contemporary art evokes a “concern for the interactive
potentialities of various material media, virtual communicative networks, and open-ended
modes of tangible connectivity.” 75 Related to Raqs’ work, this leads to an attempt to grasp the
rapid changing nature of time, space, and media today, across social, political and cultural fields.
In persuasion of a sustainable flow of alternative strategies for the production and distribution
The Global Contemporary and the Rise of New Art Worlds. Catalogue of the exhibition, p. 334
Quoted from the introduction text of the exhibition [http://www.globalcontemporary.de/en/exhibition]
74 The Global Contemporary and the Rise of New Art Worlds. Catalogue of the exhibition, p. 323
75 Smith, p. 8
72
73
36
of information and to foster collaboration between different communities within the urban
space, the artist collective cofounded the New Delhi based urban organization Sarai Media Lab
(2000) at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi. Together with the other
founders, Professors Ravi Sundaram and Ravi Vasudevan, they aim to conduct urban research
and develop new media projects, in collaboration with local communities, through the setting
up of workshops in different neighborhoods of the city. Like Huit Facettes, they demonstrate an
interest in the workshop as a social form of creative production, as it enables a direct
engagement with these neighborhoods, while emphasizing the agency of its participants.
In this respect, the city is able to intervene in and direct the projects just as the
participants are able to intervene and produce urban representations and relations through the
workshops. Although it is not one of Raqs’ own works as an artist collective, but a project
created by several participants of Sarai in collaboration with Ankur Society for Alternatives in
Education, to further elaborate on the engagement with New Delhi’s neighborhoods through the
development of workshops, I would like to discuss the Cybermohalla project (2003), or in other
words, the Cyber Neighborhood project. Located in so-called media labs in working class areas
of the city, Cybermohalla creates dynamic spaces for experimental practices and the sharing and
generating of knowledge. Mainly focused on people between the ages of 15 and 23, these media
labs function as a communal space where they have the possibility to exchange thoughts and
ideas, while working with a variety of media such as photography, animations, sound
recordings, and online courses, creating multi-media works, texts, magazines, and posters. Their
written pieces and visual works convey a “rich database of narrative, comment, observation,
imaginative play and reflection on the contested circumstances” of the communities living in the
subordinated and underserved working class areas of Delhi, which were eventually published in
several books.76 As also seen in many of ruangrupa’s artistic urban experiments, the city is
treated as an active agent, as a protagonist. Actively shaping the spaces, patterns and processes
of the artistic practices, the workshops of Cybermohalla feature the city as a relational structure,
emphasizing experimentation with urban life.
Interesting to take into account is the meaning of the word sarai. Used in various
languages in Central Asia, sarai refers to the housing of travelers. Furthermore, apart from
providing a shelter for the tired traveller, sarai facilitated trade and commerce, but also allowed
for a transcultural exchange of stories and ideas, bringing together people from different parts
of the world. Sarai, the organization, gathers, assembles and disperses data on the flows of
persons and things in the city of Delhi, and joins art and new media practices and research with
urban issues and public spaces.77 Functioning as a platform for research on the transformation
Both quote and information taken from the Cybermohalla information page on the website of Sarai
[http://sarai.net/cybermohalla-book-box/]
77 Laddaga, p. 16
76
37
of the urban space on the one hand, and as a platform for artistic and new media practices on
the other, the organization addresses the relation between cities, information, technology,
science, and culture. It can be regarded as a collaborative network, uniting artists and urban
researchers in a common commitment to the city.
Over the past decade, Sarai organized various research projects, on subjects ranging
from media urbanism, critiques of intellectual property, art practice and the public space, the
setting up of media labs in different parts of the city, as seen in Cybermohalla, and many others.
Its researchers and practitioners commit to the development of “a model of research-practice
that is public and creative, and in which multiple voices express and render themselves in a
variety of forms.”78 Through interdisciplinary collaborations, Sarai attempts to contribute to the
social cohesion in the urban space, by interaction and participation, as well as aiming to find a
new language of engagement for the contemporary world. The impact of the work conducted by
Sarai reaches beyond the artists of Raqs, as they are no longer officially part of the organization.
Evolving and developing over time, Sarai maintains an emphasis on urban research and
continues to initiate collaborations through workshops in the city of Delhi, focusing on the
improvement of everyday life of its inhabitants.
Grasping the multiplicity of Delhi
In her article, elaborating on art’s urban investigations and experiments, Liinamaa identifies
contributions and processes of artistic practices in relation to the city, by presenting the
concepts of ‘ambivalent urbanism’, ‘thick urbanism’, and ‘soft solidarity’. With these concepts
she aims to capture the critical approach of contemporary art when it comes to urban practices,
without creating a certain proscription for these practices or generating optimism that is out of
place.79 Ambivalent urbanism refers to art’s ability to work with the agency of the city,
researching urban participation and exploration. However, only in relation to specific processes
and projects. Art’s urban practices are not meant to resolve a general problematic.80 The
concept of thick urbanism refers to the artist challenging and addressing the city at both its
surface and depth. Drawing on engagement with the urban space, this translates into the artist
becoming an urban researcher, with thick urbanism emphasizing their immersion in the
environment and creating complex forms of communication, documentation and representation
of ideas and issues.81 Finally, soft solidarity denotes the potential coming together of artistic
practices and operations of NGO’s, as it speaks to a need for action, emerging in the everyday
urban life. The concept describes contemporary artists’ ability to recognize immediacy and
Quote taken from the Sarai information page on the website of Raqs Media Collective
[http://www.raqsmediacollective.net/works.aspx#]
79 Liinamaa, p. 531
80 Ibid, p. 539
81 Liinamaa, p. 540
78
38
locality, both eyeing and creating spatial formations and interactional landscapes, in support of
a wider, political project.82 Taking these concepts into account, and applying them to Raqs’
urban artistic practices, it could be argued that their work is an expression of all three. Ranging
from a focus on participation and urban exploration, as seen in Sarai and its Cybermohalla, to
them becoming urban researchers, representing their visions in complex installation artworks,
and, in general, Raqs’ devotion to support projects in the wider context of the city.
The concept of ambivalent urbanism is present throughout Raqs’ artistic practices, as
they treat the urban space, reaching beyond Delhi, as an active agent. Often, the city is the
subject, or maybe even the protagonist. An artistic choice, this does not signify their practices
being solely directed at resolving a general problematic within the urban space. However, also
seen in the work of ruangrupa, activism does coincide with artistic interventions from time to
time. Furthermore, Sarai’s practices within the urban space of Delhi are an example of soft
solidarity, as the organization was initiated out of recognition of problems prevalent in the city’s
subordinated and poor neighborhoods. The work conducted by Sarai represents a merge of
artistic practices and the practices of NGO’s. Aiming to contribute positively to everyday life in
these areas, the programs focus on social cohesion, through collaboration, interaction and
participation. Moreover, education of and exchange between young people is at the core of
Sarai’s work.
Raqs’ multimedia artworks, such as Escapement, represent complex and elaborate forms
of documentation of ideas and issues concerning the urban space, a characteristic of the concept
of thick urbanism. They challenge and address the city, in depth as well as more image-based.
This complex representation of the urban space is seen in the work Co-ordinates 28°28' N /
77°15' E, An Installation on the Co-ordinates of Everyday Life in Delhi (2002), built on research of
the highly chaotic city of Delhi. Although the names Delhi and New Delhi are often used
interchangeably to refer to the capital of India, the latter is just a district within the metropolis
of Delhi. Like Jakarta, Delhi is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world, even
exceeding Indonesia’s capital when it comes to inhabitants, with a dazzling number of 25
million. The city can be seen as a palimpsest of a long history, with relics of ancient ruling
empires, medieval fortifications, busy bazaars, remnants from the colonial era, and giant
modern shopping malls. Aiming to evoke the ungraspable multiplicity of Delhi, the artwork was
first exhibited at Documenta11. A multi-media installation, using video screens, text, sound,
print, and stickers, as well as working with documentary and found material, the work explores
urban dispossession and signs of the law in the city. The co-ordinates refer to the location of
Delhi, and, according to Raqs, become “a frame within which the work witnesses the experience
of living in the city, in terms of the constant conflict over control of space and over the different
82
Liinamaa, p. 542
39
meanings that accrue to space.”83 Various legal texts are projected, as well as official orders,
together with numbers that indicate both the traffic victims and the missing persons. Alongside
these projections, images of everyday life in Delhi are shown, such as film posters, some
fragments of an antiterrorism campaign, and religious sculptures of gods and goddesses, as well
as a satellite photo of the city on the floor (image 8).
The installation presents conflicting claims to space, focusing on the divergent
intentions of the people who share the city: its inhabitants, travelers, owners, planners, and
more. The conflict between a so-called master plan and everyday life, and how this heavily
controlled context influences the moment, is at the core of the installation. It refers to, for
instance, the economic and commercial interests of Delhi on the one hand, and the housing of its
inhabitants on the other.84 Outside of Documenta11’s exhibition space, in the streets of Kassel,
Raqs used stickers that were part of their installation. Declaring sayings, such as ‘Entry
Permitted. Acces Denied’, these stickers displayed cryptic texts that suggest a tension between
contemporary urban spaces and how we inhabit them, translated into four languages, namely
Hindi, English, Turkish, and German (image 9).85
Working as artists, curators, researchers and lecturers, Raqs explores a wide range of media,
while collaborating with various groups of people and communities, focusing on
interdisciplinary collaborations and exchange. Slightly differing from the projects conducted by
ruangrupa and Huit Facettes, the organization Sarai initiated by Raqs, reaches far beyond the
artist collective. No longer officially part of it, they do remain closely involved with Sarai’s
programs. Still working in Delhi’s neighborhoods, this project has proved to be successful in the
development of a public and creative platform for research with local communities, as it
continues to create programs like Cybermohalla. Furthermore, their multi-media artworks
convey complex forms of communication, documentation and representation of ideas and issues
concerning the urban space, in relation to and exploring processes of globalization. These
installations make visible the rapid changes in social, cultural and political fields, through the
use of images, texts and sounds related to history, everyday life in the city, the industries and
human feelings, as seen in both Escapement and Co-ordinates 28°28' N / 77°15' E.
Quote taken from the Co-ordinates 28°28' N / 77°15' E information page on the website of Raqs Media
Collective [http://www.raqsmediacollective.net/works.aspx#]
84 Fiers, Els. ‘Raqs Media Collective. Schrikbarende statistieken uit een gonzende mierenhoop.’ Metropolis
M [http://metropolism.com/magazine/2003-no3/raqs-media-collective/]
85 Art entry on Co-ordinates 28°28' N / 77°15' E, author unknown. [http://www.universes-inuniverse.de/car/documenta/11/halle/e-raqs-2.htm]
83
40
Img. 6 Raqs Media Collective, Escapement, 2009
41
Img. 7 Raqs Media Collective, Escapement, 2009
42
Img. 8 Raqs New Media Collective, Co-ordinates 28°28' N / 77°15' E, An Installation on the
Co-ordinates of Everyday Life in Delhi, 2002
Img. 9 Raqs Media Collective, Co-ordinates 28°28' N / 77°15' E, An Installation on
the Co-ordinates of Everyday Life in Delhi, 2002
43
Conclusion
The motivations behind today’s collaborations in art differ radically. Descending from socially
engaged art, emerging out of the political turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s, collectivization
through artistic production tends to arise at moments of crisis. Performing a defensive function
against such crises, they can be regarded as a re-evaluation of artistic practices, as well as a
reconfiguration of the artist in relation to society. The collaborative and collective practices
discussed in this thesis are all initiated out of complex social, political and cultural forces set in
motion by urban development and regeneration. The rapidly changing world, driven by the
force of globalization, is at the core of ruangrupa’s, Huit Facettes’ and Raqs’ work, although their
practices, and the execution and implementation, convey both similarities and dissimilarities,
regarding these changes in the social, political and cultural fields. As ruangrupa provides
alternative art spaces and creates projects that take place within the largely commercial and
trade dominated urban space of Jakarta, the artist collective sees creative potential in the loss of
social functions in the city’s public space, due to economical activities. Foregrounding the social
engagement of different groups in Jakarta, they foster collaboration, interaction and exchange,
in an attempt to create a city culture both for its inhabitants and with its inhabitants. According
to Liinamaa, art’s urban techniques have the ability to provide for critical elaborations and
recognition and exposition of problems and needs. The ability to challenge traditional
hierarchical structures and relations, and the underlying problematic, is ruangrupa’s core
practice.
Whereas ruangrupa’s work mainly appeals to experimentation with urban life, Huit
Facettes’ art practices foreground collaboration in the form of workshops, while emphasizing
and developing the agency of its participants. By taking the contrast between opposites as their
starting point, such as the urban and the rural, visual art and arts and crafts, and bringing
together a local community and both Senegalese and international artists, Huit Facettes’
approach involves a form of collaborative interaction and exchange in order to reconcile the
polarities. According to Kester, the workshop enables direct engagement with the specific needs
of its participants, while generating the capacity to transform their sense of identity and
belonging, to create new networks, and to disclose new modes of addressing one’s traditions,
history and culture. Huit Facettes explores the existent interdependency of the urban and the
rural, while their opposition is challenged through a decentralization of culture, and ultimately
reconciled by producing interdisciplinary social interventions.
At the core of Raqs’ projects and multi-media works, is an exploration of the city in
relation to global culture, as well as an engagement with technology and the digital age. The
artist collective frequently treats the subject of perception of time and its convergence with
space. As seen in the work of Huit Facettes, Raqs and the organization Sarai conduct social
44
interventions in the form of workshops. However, unlike Huit Facettes’ workshops, a shift
towards an emphasis on the urban space is discerned, as the Delhi-based artist collective
addresses urban themes and issues, focusing on the experience of everyday life, related to place,
community, circulation and migration. As suggested by Liinamaa, in her proposing the concepts
of ambivalent urbanism, thick urbanism, and soft solidarity, to elaborate on art’s urban
investigations and experiments, Raqs’ work captures the critical approach of contemporary art
when it comes to their practices related to the city. A participation and exploration in specific
urban processes and an ability to support projects in the context of the city, as well as urban
research represented in art installations, is foregrounded in their practice.
As I have aimed to suggest in my thesis, collaborative and collective art practices are booming in
today’s art world. Artists attempt to form new and different relations between producers and
public, as well as developing new procedures concerning the participation in, access to and
distribution of visual art, writings and other cultural expressions. This frequent emergence of
artist collectives indicates the formation of an artistic culture, emphasizing collectivity,
togetherness and community. Moreover, many of the artist collectives nowadays, and artistic
collaborations in general for that matter, operate horizontally. Engaging in different practices,
uniting various perspectives and backgrounds, they work interdisciplinary, often at the
intersection of activist, artistic and curatorial activities, as seen in the cases of ruangrupa, Huit
Facettes and Raqs. These artists have initially joined together in order to respond to their
specific local situation, but along the way aimed to expand their practices beyond. In my
discussion of the artist collectives, I have explored these practices of intervention and
engagement in society that are not confined to the museum, reflecting on the importance of art
in everyday life. Gradually becoming incorporated into an institutional context, as seen in
ruangrupa’s developments, is one way to engage, intervene in and respond to changes regarding
social, political and cultural events. Or aiming to reconcile urban and rural communities,
emphasizing development and empowerment as well as creating a self-sustainable future
together, as articulated in the work of Huit Facettes. Another way is placing local concerns in a
wider context, by exploring the relation between the city and global culture, as Raqs conveys in
their projects and installation works.
However, these practices, conducted by the artist collectives, are not a mere illustration
of today’s problems in the urban, suburban or rural space, and neither just a solution. They
center on the artist’s agency, which means that the artist’s own concepts and ideas are
foregrounded and taken as a basis. What I have attempted to point out is that the capacity to
make artistic choices is a key aspect and characteristic of the work of the artist collectives, and
for all artists for that matter, leading to the creation of autonomous works that, therefore, tie in
with their agency. The specific vision of the artist, along with the engagement in local, trans local
45
and international communities, is the most interesting to me, as they strive to open up, explore,
provoke and intervene in different discourses, in order to keep social dialogues going. It is
precisely this that serves as a possible art form of the future. A very clear explanation behind
the reason as to why one would engage in collaborative and collective art practices, is
formulated by the Croatian curatorial collective What, How & for Whom, the collective that was
mentioned earlier in the introduction to this thesis, in relation to their work for the exhibition
Kollektive Kreativität/Collective Creativity in Kassel in 2005. They state that the motivation to
collaborate is that it has to result in something that would otherwise not take place; it simply
has to make possible that which is otherwise impossible.86Taking this statement into account
and applying it to the work of ruangrupa, Huit Facettes and Raqs, it emphasizes the significance
of their collective practices. It is through national and international collaborations, within
Jakarta and beyond, that ruangrupa aims to reclaim the public space, creating platforms for
exchange between people with different backgrounds. Huit Facettes, on the other hand, strives
to create centers for cultural, social and artistic exchanges in the form of workshops,
intervening in the occasionally problematic relationship between Senegal’s urban and rural
areas. Furthermore, engaging in a variety of practices, ranging from urban research and
lecturing, to photography, filmmaking and writing, Raqs’ artworks and projects are built on
interdisciplinary collaborations and interactions, as they work on the intersection of different
professional fields.
My final point of reflection rests on how to expand research of art practices that take into
account changing societies. While this thesis studies art practices engaging and intervening in
urban, suburban and rural spaces, regarding changes in social, political and cultural fields,
further research could be done into how artists engage in the changing environment, as the
force of globalization does not solely operate within man-made structures and relations, like the
urban space, but just as well, and maybe even more so, within nature. While living in an era in
which the global impact of human activities is more and more visible around planet Earth, we
have to think of new ways of recognizing and dealing with these consequences, to eventually
slow them down, or even turn them around. The Anthropocene Observatory, a research
exhibition on view at BAK in Utrecht, in the beginning of 2015, proposed to rethink the
contemporary world in relation to the epoch of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is the
epoch in which human activities have influenced and impacted every aspect of the earth. An
ongoing task of artists is the emphasis on bringing awareness, as they have the ability to open
up and provoke new ways of thinking.
86
Lind 2007, p. 29.
46
Images
Cover: Aprilia Apsari and ruangrupa, Mural under the Kuningan. Graffiti. Jakarta,
Indonesia. Courtesy of Aprilia Apsari.
[http://stroomfabriek.tumblr.com/post/30529761597/aprilia-apsari-ruangrupaorgmural-under-the]
Image 1: ruangrupa, Jakarta Habitus Publik, 2001. Mixed media. Jakarta, Indonesia.
Courtesy of the artists.
[http://www.r-a-i-n.net/projects/ruangrupa/]
Image 2: ruangrupa, Jakarta Habitus Publik, 2001. Mixed media. Jakarta, Indonesia.
Courtesy of the artists.
[http://archive.ivaa-online.org/artworks/detail/3801]
Image 3: ruangrupa, Lonely Market, 2009. Mixed media. Jakarta, Indonesia. Courtesy of
the artists.
[http://www.afterall.org/journal/issue.30/who-cares-a-lot-ruangrupa-as-curatorship]
Image 4: Huit Facettes Interaction, Documentation of the workshops in Hamdallaye,
Senegal, since 1999, 2002. Exhibited at Documenta11.
[http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/documenta/11/halle/e-huit.htm]
Image 5: Huit Facettes, Documentation of the workshops in Hamdallaye, Senegal, since
1999, 2002. Exhibited at Documenta11.
[http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/documenta/11/halle/e-huit-zoom1.htm]
Image 6: Raqs Media Collective, Escapement, 2009. 27 clocks, high gloss aluminum with
LED lights, four flat screen monitors, video and audio looped. Dimensions variable.
Courtesy of Frith Street Gallery.
[http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/shows/view/raqs_media_collective_escapement]
Image 7: Raqs Media Collective, Escapement, 2009. 27 clocks, high gloss aluminum with
LED lights, four flat screen monitors, video and audio looped. Dimensions variable.
Courtesy of Frith Street Gallery.
[http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/shows/view/raqs_media_collective_escapement]
Image 8: Raqs Media Collective, Co-ordinates 28°28' N / 77°15' E, An Installation on the
Co-ordinates of Everyday Life in Delhi, 2002. Video screens, audio, print and stickers.
Courtesy of the artists.
[http://www.raqsmediacollective.net/works.aspx#]
47
Image 9: Raqs Media Collective, Co-ordinates 28°28' N / 77°15' E, An Installation on the
Co-ordinates of Everyday Life in Delhi, 2002. Video screens, audio, print and stickers.
[http://universes-in-universe.de/car/documenta/11/halle/e-raqs-zoom3.htm]
48
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50
Sarai <http://sarai.net/>
Universes In Universes <universes-in-universe.de>
W139 <http://w139.nl/nl/>
51
Title:
Make Friendship, it is Art. On artist collectives engaging in the urban now
Student:
Judith Couvee
Student number:
1430637
Date:
07 August 2015
Type of paper:
MA Thesis Arts and Culture, 18.100 words
Program:
MA Arts and Culture, 2014-2015 | Final Thesis
Specialization:
Art of the Contemporary World and World Art Studies
EC:
20 EC
Tutor:
Prof. dr. C.J.M. Zijlmans
Declaration: I hereby certify that this work has been written by me, and that it is not the
product of plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct.
For plagiarism see under:
http://www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/studenten/reglementen/plagiaatregelingen.html
Signature:
52