The highly controversial Documenta 15 has now concluded, yet the debates it sparked remain intense. We witnessed profound discord and imbalance at one of the most prominent sites representing the global contemporary art scene. Why should we care? We might still ask: how are we—artists, institutions, curators, collectors—connected to discourses around “locality,” “the Global South,” “context,” and “Lumbung,” the concept introduced by Ruangrupa in Documenta 15? How do we make sense of these conflicts and discussions? How do we reconceptualize “locality”? In this seminar, we aim to reflect on these questions and clarify our own positions.

Over the past century, many artists have grappled with the idea of “international art.” Among them were figures like Wassily Kandinsky, who declared that there was only one art school in the world—the “International College of Art”—and Joseph Beuys, who spearheaded the creation of the Free International University. Today, however, we see art schools proliferating in both quality and quantity like rats, flies, and termites. Exhibitions have had to become more cunning than streetwalkers soliciting clients. We are compelled to consider the impact of local exhibitions on the broader art ecosystem, and to continually reconsider how to situate local artists and their work within a larger framework. How do we balance the roles of art spaces, collectors, and art historical narratives with local concerns, while also engaging with universal themes such as the Anthropocene and planetary care in a regional context? How do we reassess international exhibitions after 2022?