Page 78 - ARTE!Brasileiros #60

ENGLISH VERSION FOR FREEDOM

Andrade: “culture is more important than group, because there is no such thing as be just a piece of floor (or a huge cloth rug),
bread, because without culture we don’t mainstream in Indonesia, something for with open play materials on it.”
even make bread”. the general public. “This floor exists today and has been set up
In the artist’s opinion, however, this would “What we are actually doing is building, a few times in the Goetheanlage, my favorite
involve a reformulation of the cultural and first and foremost, infrastructure. And park in the city. But the original project grew
artistic environment itself. “It is necessary from them try to understand if what we – to occupy a room in the Fridericianum – and
to create a lexicon and ethics to deal with collectively create can originate not just a was, from the beginning, strongly rooted in
this unavoidable reality, this emergence sum of its parts, but something that in fact the city of Kassel. From my local research,
of a peripheral intellectual and symbolic has artistic and aesthetic results”, he said. I met Elke Avenarius, who became a great
production”. He makes the proposal when The curator also stressed that the work working partner. Together, we designed
remembering the constant criminalization done on documenta fifteen was not based the space that occupies approximately 200
of popular movements — “it is necessary to on a theme — lumbung, he recalled, literally square meters, on the ground floor of the
admit that our capitalism is a capitalism of means rice barn, in his language — but on museum”, said Kunsch.
slave quarters, which still does not qualify a set of open, limitless practices. “We are According to Kunsch, the space she
its consumers, which does not want the not looking for artists who would illustrate designed for documenta fifteen was
peripheral populations to frequent the malls, a concept. It was much more about a way divided into reading and viewing rooms
it is a capitalism that prohibits the rolezinho, of doing things,” he explained. and a parental daycare, with free admission.
which criminalizes popular movements.” Next, Rakun said that the curatorship The daycare area had care spaces – such
For the curator, however, far from favoring of documenta fifteen tried not to follow as diaper changing stations, a kitchen,
reparation, the current socio-political the logic of a classic art direction, in a breastfeeding chairs and a sleeping room,
moment raises concerns, such as the position of power play, choosing to delegate where adults take care of babies. And the
dismantle of the Ministry of Education in decisions to people. And even before the daycare center had play spaces, where
the last four years: “We are experiencing a beginning of the show, ruangrupa grouped babies were able, as Hungarian pediatrician
tremendous attack”. the artists, to make sure that, before its Emmi Pikler (1902-1984) would say, to take
opening, they got to know each other and care of themselves. Adults were there,
DoCumenta fifteen build affinities, acquire trust and, in order present, explains the artist, but they didn’t
Complementary, the participations of Farid to make collaborative projects as well. have to teach the children how to play or
Rakun and Graziela Kunsch illuminated The curator listed some of the highlights how to move their bodies.
the curatorial foundations of documenta of the 2022 edition of documenta, among After the end of documenta fifteen,
fifteen, which ended in September. Rakun them the lack of competitiveness among Kunsch explained that her desire was to
is an artist and a member of ruangrupa, the participants — Graziela, he said rebuild the Public Daycare in São Paulo,
an Indonesian collective from Jakarta, in his speech, could be an example of sending furniture and play materials by
which was in charge of conceptualizing someone who, despite being taken by a container. “But many families started to
and assembling the show. Artist, mother certain “lumbung fever”, never sought the come to me, advocating for the project to
and educator, Kunsch represented Brazil spotlight. Another result of documenta remain in Kassel. They asked me if there
in the project in Kassel, Germany, with her fifteen is the lumbung gallery, one of the was anything they could do to keep the
Public Daycare. many developments of this experience that project going in the city. I limited myself
At the beginning of his speech, Rakun may continue. Rakun recalled that about to replying that they could self-organize.
showed, on the screen, one of the first 95% of the contributors — around 1500 Well, they self-organized”, said the artist.
meeting points of ruangrupa. Created and names — they invited to the exhibition are According to Kunsch, several families sent
active between 2016 and 2017, this space he not represented by galleries. letters to local politicians and the demand
called an ecosystem, in which he and his “We are trying to think of a gallery form, she received from the group was to list
companions began to deal with the notion for lack of a better word, more connected everything that would make up the work,
of lumbung itself, of being a collective made with our values. Pricing, for example, is in the case of its purchase by the Kassel
up of collectives, where one of the goals something we’ve been thinking about a City Hall, through the lumbung gallery.
was to share different resources. lot. How to acquire as a collector, how to “I am preparing a small dossier on the
“When we were invited to documenta, collect collectively, how to collect works that work, but, in general terms, my proposal
we decided that we didn’t want the project are not conceived as objects”, he explains. and that of my partner Elke Avenarius is
to be extracted from Jakarta and taken to “It’s not just about buying, but thinking that the city hall can designate a new space
Kassel. We didn’t want to do things that about contracts that include a political or for the daycare center, which assumes a
weren’t in line with our agenda. And the ideological commitment, from the buyer basic renovation of the space (if this is
European agenda is Western. documenta to the artist.” necessary for the space to be inhabited
wanted to be part of the trajectory that One of the documenta fifteen’s most — for example, a bathroom and electrical
we have followed for almost 20 years, so commented projects, a dynamic community and plumbing care), and we will both take
we returned the invitation to documenta, structure that translated well the lumbung care of adapting the project to the new
to show, there, what we have been doing proposal, was the Public Daycare, by the situation, using part of the sale value for
in Indonesia, which is, indisputably, the mother, educator and Brazilian artist this production/construction”, continued
product of a failed state”, said the curator. Graziela Kunsch, which closed the Vii the artist. “Of course, these proposals raise
Rakun said his country has failed to International Seminar. In her presentation, the biggest challenge of project continuity,
provide the infrastructure for the arts Kunsch recalled how her project was born. In which is: who takes care of all this?”
and culture, or at least the kind of art and a letter addressed to ruangrupa, she spoke To answer this question, the artist
culture they are actually interested in. He about Chão da Manu, or the project for a continued, she told how she likes to work as
argued that they are not an alternative parental daycare center, which would then an artist: “Instead of thinking and deciding
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