Harvest
First lumbung assembly
lumbung assembly Day One – October 20, 2020
In the wink of an eye, October comes. It is within this month of the year 2020 that all lumbung members observe the streams of ideas that travel and are connected from one place to another. In preparation for the next documenta fifteen, all gathered for an assembly in which each lumbung member introduced themselves, shared their stories, ideas, as well as their preliminary projections for the next two years—or even more. The session took four days, October 20, 21, 22, and 27. Despite the difficult time due to the pandemic, the plan was made possible through virtual gatherings. There was a short entertaining check-in as an icebreaker. On the screen you could see jovial faces appearing with smiles.
“Welcome everyone. Could you see the slides?
On one of the squares was a couple whose hairs were flying as if on a windy beach. They were Tayeba and Mahboub, who cheerfully told stories about their collective called Britto Arts Trust, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The collective was established in 2002 and has been working extensively across countries through workshops, residency programs, community based-projects, exhibitions, research and archiving practices.
From Dhaka, Bangladesh, we virtually moved about six thousand kilometers to Kenya where we listened to stories from Wajukuu Art Project, a collective of visual artists working with a community in Nairobi. In the hand of Wajukuu art becomes a way to engage the slum community, in which a learning process materializes. “We also created a library, but unfortunately it is no longer there because of the issue of space. We can share our future plans here. We would like to have land outside Nairobi where we can do farming. It’s what we are planning,” said Ngugi from Wajukuu.
This introduction was followed by another story from Jatiwangi Art Factory (JaF), a collective based in West Java, Indonesia. In another square on the screen, a group of youth were sitting together in the corner of the room. Some of them were musicians, who kindly played music for relaxation and ice-breaking. The song was about mango seasons. As it was ended by lively applause, one of them introduced JaF’s plans for the next two years. “Together with lumbung we want to create a new development model for our future collaboration. We imagine having communal land, a collective factory, and a bulog (storage), kind of lumbung. It is kind of lumbung but more institutional. At the moment, we think about how to distribute products.”
Meanwhile, the story continued. From Jatiwangi in West Java we took another virtual trip to Germany to have a conversation with ZK/U, Center for Art and Urbanistic, based in Berlin. Matze—one of the members of ZK/U—talked about the issue of space. “We would like to carry this practice. … To move with our residency in Kassel, and see how we can develop together. To transform our past, thinking beyond Kassel, also to emphasize the issue of sustainability, which could be developed for more than the 100 days documenta lasts. ZK/U is also developing ideas on sharing networks and resources beyond monetary logic. How can we live and work together differently and distribute in a way that is more beautiful, more sharing, instead of being productive all the time. We are thinking of good sleep, hanging out, and combining various economic systems into the lumbung system,” said Matze.
lumbung assembly Day Two – October 21, 2020
On the second day of the lumbung Assembly all the vibe was still the same. Cheerful faces from various parts of the earth appeared on the screen. “We have a request, we have a Zoom performance,” said Yazan, representing Question on Funding (QoF) from Palestine. “We are going to sing a song and you will sing after us, okay. Here we go!” It was such a pleasant ice-breaking, which all seemed to enjoy. It’s been several years since they started to work together and to have conversations about the issue of funding. “We are organizing a system that is different from what international aid wants us to do. They have conversations and have many voices on this issue. International aid disempowers our struggle and many other negative influences,” said Fayrouz, member of QoF. “We are thinking of creating sustainable income so that the community will not be dictated by the donor. We are thinking of how to recycle and reproduce money that comes into cultural productions.”
From Palestine, all lumbung members took another virtual journey far away to Denmark where we had a conversation with Trampoline House, a collective that consists of artists and asylum seekers based in Copenhagen. They began a story about the situation and condition of the people in detention in Denmark. “Europe is now becoming the most dangerous in terms of migration. There is a huge number of asylum seekers, they are refugees leaving their own countries for various reasons like war, political conflicts, and so on. They are not allowed to work and to have educational programs, only children of asylum seekers are allowed to go to school.” Starting a critical art project for refugees, Trampoline House gives opportunities for people to contribute through internships. It was initiated in 2009 by socially engaged art students and artists. “We do job training, counseling, creative workshops, art exhibitions, and monthly house meetings to discuss refugee’s and migrants’ conditions.” They also explained that Trampoline is seeking to create an alternative asylum system as its vision. “We are going to embark on a journey together for the next two years in documenta fifteen. This group includes asylum seekers, artists, and others.”
These ideas are open to grow further, but before that, on the same day, we took another journey that brought us to Colombia to have a conversation with Más Arte Más Acción (MAMA). “It is very clear today how we are individuals and this means if we choose to make a movement, we have social and creative organization and collective work come together to create organizations. The question is how do we use these resources? What will we do later in this organization?” At the time in 2015, when Arts Collaboratory allowed us to take on this project of thinking about sustainability, and about how to work in a way that is more integrated with the local ecosystems, we’ve always been concerned with climate change and the environment. “We’re kind of collecting a memory of what we have been doing, so that we can also share what the pedagogical process has been, and also we’re hoping to be able to emphasize the results of the project and hope that it can be available in many languages, so that we can establish a connection between this struggle and other struggles.” MAMA conceived of the project as not simply a project. It is also a reflection of their way of relating to the ecosystem of organizations. “We are thinking about sustainability.”
lumbung assembly Day Three – October 22, 2020
“Are you guys ready?” The lyrics appeared on our screen. The music pounded delightfully in our ears, triggering all our adrenaline. All tried to keep on singing a song by Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive. With the karaoke, time flew. That’s how the third assembly started on October 22. Gudskul from Jakarta took the first turn. Gudskul studies contemporary art. They are an ecosystem and educational platform founded by three Jakarta based collectives, ruangrupa, serrum, and Grafis Huru Hara. A short video was played explaining the history of Gudskul. Each of these three different collectives has been separately practicing collectivity since the early 2000s in the realm of contemporary art. In 2005 they joined forces to establish a common ecosystem called Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem. Gudskul has an idea of creating a so-called Koperasi (Indonesian word for cooperation) organized by collectives or, in other words, a multi-party cooperation. They would develop a collective knowledge cooperation to make visible the relevance of cooperation in relation to creative collective practices. How it is relevant in the realm of economy, society, and culture. “We need to discuss more on this issue to create a platform that makes sense for all of us.”
With a bit of dance and smiles, the song became a bridge that took us to another part of the earth where we virtually met with Fernando and friends from INLAND from Campo Adentro, Spain. They have been working on farms and dairies in the countryside. “Well, here we are. I think it is a good opportunity to share about our progress, our direction to develop together as lumbung,” said Fernando. INLAND shared their plans through reflecting on their current focuses. They would develop an idea inspired from their infrastructure. “The idea is to create a self-managed infrastructure that could sustain the life of collective projects.” In addition, INLAND would also have a nomadic infrastructure that links the city with the countryside. “Also, we would be working on knowledge, to develop a new curriculum for our INLAND Academy, like a shepherd school, a school for young leaders for a nomadic movement.”
There was no more karaoke, but silence with black screen for some time. Then, a slide appeared with OFF-Biennale Budapest written on it. We had moved from Spain to another story from Budapest, Hungary. “Hello, shall we take up the ball?” said Hajnaka from OFF. OFF-Biennale is a newly established biennale, as it has succeeded two biennales in the past. By the time the third one is prepared, the Covid pandemic challenges. It is then postponed until next spring. As curatorial collectives, OFF have been engaged with art education, rural-knowledge, and ROMAMoMA, a contemporary art project with the wish to establish a transnational museum to fill in the gap in the narrative of Roma as the largest ethnic minority. For documenta, they will focus on art education and the change that happens throughout the world and this academy. OFF tried to find a connection between lumbung and a local concept in Hungary, kalaka. “It is a voluntary and collective way of working known more in central eastern European countries,” said Nikolett Eross, one of the curatorial team in OFF. This is so related to the concept of collective governance.
lumbung assembly day Four – October 27, 2020
Five days later, the assembly continued. “We are delighted. We would like to share our story.” Bright smiles were on the screens. They were Fondation Festival sur le Niger (FSLN) from Mali, West Africa. In the short video played, people enjoyed exhibitions, talks, and various kinds of music. Men and women danced cheerfully. This yearly festival has been one of the drivers of the cultural economy in their city, Segou. About 30 countries came and celebrated art there. “The Festival has been important for local partners and the public. This festival has been dealing with human values, respect values, and respecting one another. We have a Maaya concept dealing with the community,” said Attaher Maiga, representing the collective. Since 2012, Mali has been enduring security issues, safety issues, political and economical issues, “This pushes us to organize this event.” It is where collaboration plays an important role. “We work on sharing values of Maaya which is about humans, sharing resources, and creating solidarity. “We are going to organize space and knowledge like a mixture between Maaya and lumbung. Why not propose such a festival, where in this partnership of Maaya and lumbung we could expand and develop dialogue together, what we have in common.”
Overall, was inspiring with a lot of fresh ideas and knowledge. Festival sur le Niger was the last lumbung member that told us their remarkable story on the last day. Yet it was not the end of the assembly as we went on to listen to more stories from Kassel, where documenta fifteen is taking place in 2022.
Ayşe Güleç, representing the artistic team, took over and told us a bit more about the history and most importantly several findings and venues for the next documenta. “Kassel has many histories. What should be told to people is really difficult, if you don’t want to be trapped in city marketing.” She began to share stories through images. “For documenta fifteen we agreed to be in all parts of Kassel like center, north, south and the river Fulda,” said Ayşe.
After Ayşe, we listened to a short presentation by Martin Fokken, head of production of documenta fifteen, and he explained more about the venues. Martin has been working with Iswanto Hartono and Reza Afisina—members of ruangrupa.
On the screen a picture of a big building that’s now been transformed into ruruHaus. It was rented in early 2020 and was built after the war in the early 1950s. The building has four levels above ground and one level underground. There was a place used for storage that is now being used for works by the ruruHaus team. There’s also an empty basement with several uses such as rurushop, ticket shop, bookstore, a place for meeting, eating and a bar. The second floor is going to be the office.
To share more, deep into the storm, as he said it, Reza Afisina, who is working on ruruHaus, took his turn to tell us another story. “Since ruruHaus was started, we have been trying to activate this particular space.” They tried occupying a space that was formerly a shoe shop and it accommodated around 50-80 people in the condition of Covid back then. They did it with university students in Kassel, as Reza and Iswanto also initiated a project called Art and Urban Development together with faculty of architecture and urban landscape. It is like a compilation of history to see how Kassel has been growing from documenta one until fourteen. “So this is part of our interaction with students via ruruHaus and the city of Kassel.” They have close conversations with several key actors like collectives and other individuals on how to activate this building further. “This is not only collaboration, this is not only bringing music or a festival to Kassel or any other production, this is more like if you want to translate something that has already happened in Kassel, you need to acknowledge different kinds of practices that have once happened here” said Reza. They are also thinking about a method of shared economy, to create a cooperative system specially to engage with the neighborhood, especially relating to land reform, the use of particular public spaces, and to organic, bio-agricultural issues. “We have had around seven majelis (assemblies) so far,” said Reza. They are thinking of how this idea of land issue, for example, could also be a collaboration project with other lumbung members. “We are working on building trust and friendship, not only creating a project in Kassel but also to think of how to make it sustain.” This kind of collaboration idea is even more relevant in this particular moment of pandemic.
Time flies. All gave applause. It took nearly five hours, yet it was a truly rewarding conversation, as it gave introductory ideas on collective works and plans of how documenta fifteen would proceed.