Documenta fifteen is no ordinary art exhibition. Envisioned under the guiding concept of lumbung, the Indonesian collective ruangrupa is less concerned with individual works than with models of collaborative practice. The Handbook offers insights and orientation to the processes that evolved in the creation of the exhibition. A comprehensive resource both for visitors of documenta in Kassel as well as people interested in collective practices, this Handbook presents all documenta fifteen collectives and artists through profiles by international authors familiar with their different artistic practices and cultural contexts. Using the pivotal question of "what is lumbung?" as a vantage point, the book is an introduction to the mindset and cultural background of documenta fifteen, featuring numerous documents and photographs that trace the collectives' working process. A chapter gathering all of the show's locations and venues in Kassel as well as a large fold-out city map and an introduction to the exhibition's "Public Program" will prove to be especially useful for all visitors.
As part of documenta fifteen, ruangrupa publishes two issues of a magazine, "majalah," in Indonesia exploring the exhibition's pivotal concept-working collectively. lumbung, which directly translates to "rice barn," refers to a collectively governed building where a community's harvest is gathered, stored, and distributed according to jointly determined criteria as a pooled resource for the future, but is also understood in a broader sense as a way of working and living together. The two issues - Harvesting and Sharing - combined here in one volume, explore the implications of sharing resources for the collective wellbeing. Featuring short stories and features by leading journalists, researchers, and writers from Indonesia, Majalah lumbung touches on themes such as cosmology, food, and architecture, providing a contextualized foundation for documenta fifteen.
