Indonesian art collective, Ruangrupa has been selected as artistic director of the 15th edition of Documenta, set to take place in 2022. The sprawling art exhibition held every five years in the industrial town of Kassel in Germany is a cornerstone of the international art calendar. This is the first time that an artist collective has been nominated to curate the event and the first time that its curatorial leadership has come from Asia.

Ruangrupa is a non-profit artist-run initiative that was established in 2000 by a group of artists in Jakarta (Indonesia) to support the progress of contemporary artistic ideas and the broadening scope of culture within the urban context, through exhibitions, festivals, workshops, research projects, and the publishing of journals. In 2011, the collective took part in Art Dubai’s Marker exhibition by Nav Haq, presenting collated highlights of Mini OK-Video Festival, the biennial event that they launched in 2003, and which has become an important event in the South East Asian art scene.

Commenting for Ruangrupa – an Indonesian word that loosely translates as ‘a space for art’ or ‘a space form’ – members Farid Rakun and Ade Darmawan said they would be taking a participatory approach for Documenta 15: “We want to create a globally oriented, cooperative, interdisciplinary art and culture platform that will have an impact beyond the 100 days of Documenta 15.”