Dutch Art Institute’s (DAI) academic year 2015-2016 will unfurl under the spell of SONSBEEK 2016, the continuation of a rich tradition of sculpture exhibitions in-and outside the lush Park Sonsbeek in Arnhem, now a public space but formerly a private country estate erected in the 19th century by wealthy colonials, operating as sugar traders from what they dubbed the ‘Dutch East Indies’. Today the name of the exhibition’s most iconic edition (1971) still resonates: Sonsbeek buiten de Perken (“Sonsbeek beyond lawn and order”). As you may have been informed: Editon 2016 is going to be curated by Jakarta based artist collective ruangrupa.

The curators have coined their Sonsbeek-edition TRANSACTION ARNHEM whereafter DAI (as roaming academy and spaceship with Arnhem as it’s monthly airstrip) decided that if ‘transaction’ is to be understood as decolonial communication and exchange, aiming to affect and jazz up all parties involved, it should, from DAI’s part, physically extend to Jakarta as well.

DAI is now realizing this ambition; in the bitter awareness that artists, curators and art students belong to the 21st century privileged mobile global happy few. The urgent question how to make sense out of this privilege in a time where the majority of the world’s population is denied the right to freely cross borders constitutes an innate aspect of their ongoing research as Roaming Academy.

Temporarily relocating DAI:

Managing staff, core tutorial team and all MA-students will travel to Indonesia and bring running projects, workshops, seminars and presentations to Jakarta (and beyond) during the first weeks of the Jakarta Biennale 2015: Neither Forward nor Back: Acting in The Present which we will join (next to our own relocated curriculum and Roaming Academy research projects) for it’s opening, it’s four-day symposium and the two final days of the MKMK Academy.

Apart from joining the Jakarta Biennial the DAI students will convene with DAI staff and tutors as well as with guest tutors based in Southeast Asia: Irwan Ahmett, Nick Aikens (Van Abbe Museum), Mirwan Andan, Bassam El Baroni, Ute Meta Bauer, Jon Mikel Euba, Fernando García-Dory (INLAND,Casco), Susan Gibb (IICD), Ardi Gunawan, May Adadol Ingawanij, Ricardo Liong-a-Kong, Doreen Mende, Ruth Noack, Rachel O’Reilly, Farid Rakun, Grace Samboh, Gabriëlle Schleijpen, Jorinde Seijdel (Open!), Jacq van der Spek, Arie Syariffudin, Etiënne Turpin, Marina Vishmidt, Vivian Ziherl and Tirdad Zolghadr and others to be announced.

Aside from our affiliation with prolific and super generous main partner Institut ruangrupa. / ruangrupa  we are thrilled to be able to hook up with Arkipel in Jakarta, Tanakita-camp in Sukabumi, Jatiwangi Art Factory in Jatiwangi, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space and Museum Konperensi Asia-Afrika, both in Bandung.

Dutch Art Institute: Roaming Academy
ARNHEM transaction JAKARTA
November 9-30, 2015
The details of DAI’s day-to-day program in Indonesia are to be found here.
The class where I co-teach is titled Non-transmittable form with May Adadol Ingawanij and Ruth Noack