Exoticization, a barrier to liberating the excluded
Participants: Vincent Rumahloine, Igor Stokfiszewski
The discursive programme supplementing the Gotong Royong. Things We Do Together exhibition intends to add to what we learned from the exhibition itself. Recent changes in the social, political and economic climate—including economic crises, political-religious extremism, the questioning of climate changes, populist and nationalist trends, the crisis in education and the gradual breakdown of community ties—seem to be universal. The Gotong Royong. Things We Do Together exhibition offers projects, actions and grassroots solutions by using artistic-educational activism to defy these negative indicators. We would like this discursive programme to put the exhibition in a broader context. The programme’s meetings will differ both in format and in their way of presenting knowledge. The meetings will involve artists and activists who are taking part in the exhibition, as well as analysts of culture and of connections between politics and economics. We believe that it is important to investigate concrete issues. In these meetings, we will think about what acting together means, why nationalist tendencies are picking up and what role an unconventional perspective can play in transforming education.
Vincent Rumahloine - Indonesian artist working with mixed media, mostly photography and video. He graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the Bandung Institute of Technology in 2009. After, he began to work as a high school art teacher until 2014; this experience of dealing and interacting with high school students taught him how to interact with communities in the future. Since 2011, he has been involved in social work as a volunteer in several organizations including Rumah Cemara Center (HIV and Drug Addiction Treatment Center located in Bandung that works on anti-discrimination programs too). Those experiences are crucial for his art practice.
Igor Stokfiszewski (Poland) - literary critic, playwright, member of the “Krytyka Polityczna” team. He studied Polish Studies at the University of Łódź and at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Author of the book „Zwrot polityczny” [The Political Turn] (2009). He has published in, among others, “Gazeta Wyborcza,” “Tygodnik Powszechny,” “Ha!arcie,” “FA-arcie,” “Notatnik Teatralny,” and “die tageszeitung.” As a reviewer, he collaborated with the television program Kinematograf (TVP1) and Czytelnia (TVP Kultura). Stokfiszewski collaborates with Nowy Teatr in Warsaw as well as Teatr Łaźnia Nowa in Kraków and Berlin Biennale.
Curators of discursive programme accompanying the exhibition "Gotong Royong. Things we do together" : Marianna Dobkowska and Konrad Schiller