Last week, while tidying up my room, I found out that I have two series of Documenta that I haven’t finished reading yet. One of them is Documenta Fourteen, which I borrowed from Rahul Patel, and the other is Documenta Fifteen, which I borrowed from the library. 

And I thought, oops..

And yeah, I began to read them again, so that I can return the Documenta Fourteen to Rahul before summer ends. I still keep the Documenta Fifteen once my project ends, I will tell you why later (p.s thank you to the magnificent CSM Library!)

Sasha-Come-Lately

I learned about Documenta after having separate discussions with Roger Orwell and Rahul Patel before the summer. When I asked about my initial research question about collective creativity, they both told me that RuangRupa, an Indonesian art collective based in Jakarta, was leading the art direction for Documenta Fifteen in Kassel, Germany in 2022.

The first thing that came up into my mind was: “What? I never knew that RuangRupa had an event in Kassel, Germany. How did I miss it?“

To catch up on the event information, I discussed it further in June 2025 with both of them. Apparently, both of them had attended Documenta Fifteen in 2022. From the discussion, I was advised to read the documentation for Documenta Fifteen first, along with the documentation for Documenta Fourteen, which I had borrowed from Rahul. 

And thanks to Rahul, he gave me a full lecture about Documenta, after I gave back his book in August 2025. And from the discussion, it gave me a lot of ideas to shape my third intervention!

Source: Documenta Fifteen

To give you a context about this event in case you did not know either, just like me, Documenta is one of the world’s most significant and influential exhibitions of contemporary art, held every five years in the city of Kassel, Germany. It was an anchor of modern art post-world war 2. Documenta was founded in 1955 by Arnold Bode, a Kassel-based artist. The exhibition’s primary purpose was to reconnect Germany with the international art scene and to showcase works that had been deemed “degenerate art”, or discontinued art, and suppressed by the Nazi regime.

Every 5 years, the theme is changing, directed by different artists across the globe, to curate and collaborate with various artists from every part of the world. Including RuangRupa in Documenta Fifteen.

So the history of Documenta itself has been very political since the beginning. So, I GUESS I understand why Documenta Fifteen, was not really loud in my country back then.

So, I Read Them (Again) ✌️

When I first read the Documenta Fourteen, I was really confused about all the context at first. I need to read and re-read again. The art description and the essays are way too contemporary, and extremely confusing for me. I think that’s the reason why I was not really engaged at first.

But then I grabbed a coffee, lock myself in and read in a very comfortable setting. And finally I understood the underlying meaning behind the theme of “Learning from Athens.” Inspired from what was happening with Greece’s economy back in 2017, the theme was a radical and physical reorientation of the entire exhibition. For the first time in its history, Documenta was split between its traditional home in Kassel, Germany, and a second, equally important host city: Athens, Greece.

Most of the arts capturing various artists from all over the hemisphere in international level. There is one quote from Marina Fokidis, an art curator in Documenta Fourteen, from this video that stating a very important fact: “Documenta can not change economic crisis, but can give a hope through artistic scene.”

Art however, can both be right and left. And also can be very neutral. But art, in my opinion, can echo our voices. So it is our choice to choose what kind of voice we want to deliver.

Documenta Fourteen skillfully mirrored the dialogue between the “North” (Germany, perceived as the economic powerhouse) and the “South” (Greece, grappling with austerity and a refugee crisis). The central theme was a form of self-critique, encouraging a contemplation of the power dynamics within Europe and the global art world.

Contemporary arts, personally, can be very confusing to be casually read. I need to watch videos and even

So how about Documenta Fifteen?

When I first acknowledge Documenta Fifteen, I feel surprised to hear my own mother tongue term captured in a European book, which is “Lumbung”.

“Lumbung,” an Indonesian term for a communal rice barn, exemplifies a traditional system where villages collectively store surplus rice for the benefit of the entire community, especially during times of need. Ruangrupa applied this concept to the exhibition itself. They envisioned Documenta Fifteen as a “resource pot” that would be built and shared by a network of community-oriented art collectives and organizations from around the world, particularly from the Global South. So instead of they act as a curator, they want people to collaborate while they are facilitating the “resource pot”.

This theme was also influenced by the spirit of Gotong Royong, which emphasizes mutual cooperation and collaboration among all parties to overcome any challenges. RuangRupa identified this as a distinctive feature of the life of the people of the archipelago, or Indonesia.

Through this provocative, collaborative act of contemporary art, they shared stories and opened up conversations with people from another country who were experiencing the same problem that was depicted in the art at the events. Muhammad “Ucup” Yusuf, an artist from Taring Padi, said he was surprised that the problems that are happening in the developing countries is also happening in the developed countries after many conversations unlocked from the arts that are being exhibited.

HOWEVER, Documenta Fifteen apparently bring a lot of controversy. The collective was accused of anti-semitism because of a particular set of pictures that were put up. This issue was reportedly “blown all out of proportion” by other political forces.

In my opinion, it is because the topic highlighted the social and political issues all over the world, and through arts we are allowed to justify, criticize and make a stand over anything that we stood for. Just like the spirit of contemporary art and Kassel itself.

Although challenging, this endeavour opens up new horizons and knowledge for fellow artists, particularly Indonesians, towards diverse perspectives in the world. Apparently, due to the scandalous artworks, the artist was accused of lacking knowledge about antisemitism.

On the other hand, I don’t believe it’s about Indonesians not being knowledgeable about antisemitism. Some knowledge might not be being properly researched, or perhaps some people have more power to control conversations.

Isn’t art supposed to take a stand and provoke something?

Lesson from Documenta

Regardless of the wonders and controversies happening in Documenta Fifteen, we can learn that art collaboration can unlock various conversations through artworks or in, an MA Applied Imagination way, called artefact.

So, what if instead of serving as a platform for exhibiting artworks by various artists, a biennale could also be an entire design process that unlocks new discoveries? In this way, a biennale could become an institution and academic resource for artists and designers to gather, learn, and collaborate to solve complex problems.

Rahul also suggested this idea when I shared my plan for my third intervention. He guided me to the exhibition space near the library, explaining how the wall could serve as an entire design process for people to walk by, creating art or sharing their ideas collectively. Which I thought this could be a great idea to iterate my previous ideation session that I did from the second intervention.

The concept of Gotong Royong, as explored in RuangRupa, further solidified my research and led me towards this philosophy. This grassroots spirit has the potential to be integrated into existing designs as a social innovation method that is currently lacking in the Southern Hemisphere context. In my project, I aim to maximize the involvement of local residents in initiating and ideating their own neighbourhood.

Does it mean that I’m going to make a biennale?

Of course not yet, but maybe redefining the purpose of exhibition as a design method using gotong royong philosophy sounds better. Because, the research should make people feel included and not judged, therefore, diffuse arts or designs are welcome. And exhibition can be a great method for people to showcase their opinion and make it heard.