The documenta 15 artistic directors visit the Basque Country

The ruangrupa collective, artistic directors of the documenta 15 international art exhibition held in Kassel in 2022, are currently in the Basque Country. The Etxepare Basque Institute and the deputy minister of Culture of the Basque Government, Joxean Muñoz, received them today at the Tabakalera center.

Three members of this Indonesian collective are visiting here: the director, Ade Darmawan; programme coordinator, Indra Ameng; and activist and researcher, Ayşe Güleç. During their week-long visit, they will visit local projects, meet with agents, and learn about models and practices, focusing on those that can promote the course of action and concepts they want to explore. Their interest lies in projects that can generate global impact, even if they are carried out in local contexts. Sustainability, activism, alternative education and indigenous knowledge are among the topics that surround ruangrupa’s artistic practice. They arrived in San Sebastian last Saturday and will have the chance to meet over 15 agents from the Basque context. In addition, the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao hosted an open conference by the collective where they explained the concept that they are working on for the documenta 15 exhibition.

The Etxepare Basque Institute started the ZABAL project in 2019 to offer new opportunities to Basque artists and to create and strengthen relations in the international context. During the year, several international curators, art critics and museum directors will visit the Basque Country invited by the Etxepare Basque Institute to establish a direct relationship with local artists and explore forms of collaboration. To carry out this initiative, the Institute has had the help of Artinegnium, the art office headed by Lourdes Fernandez that works in the management of local and international contemporary art projects.

A total of seven international curators will be invited during the first phase of the programme, which began in November 2019 and continues until June 2020. The first one was Ruth Estevez, curator of the São Paulo biennial, and the ruangrupa collective is the second.