Arief Yudi Rahman/ Jatiwangi art Factory: The New Rural Agenda

Saturday, 23rd of July 2022, 5-8 p.m.

Discussion moderated by Adelina Luft, accompanied by dinner

The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life, Silistea Snagovului

For documenta fifteen in Kassel, the Jatiwangi art Factory has developed the New Rural Agenda—a transnational summit among rural community networks. The summit was preceded by the New Rural School, a series of knowledge and narrative exchanges in the form of conferences, amateur radio talks, and the Bulletin Rural School. It emphasized diverse perspectives from below and peripheries, challenging uniform ideas of progress and sustainability.

Established in 2005, Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF) is a community that embraces contemporary arts and cultural practices as part of the local life discourse in a rural area. Their manifold activities, always involving the local public, include a video festival, a music festival, a residency program, a discussion series, and a TV and radio station.

Arief Yudi Rahman is an artist, curator and cultural producer. He lives and works in Jatiwangi, Majalengka Regency, West Java, Indonesia. Since early ‘90s, he has been involved in various fine arts projects, both local and international. He co-founded Barak Gallery in Bandung (b. 1999) and co-initiated the Bandung Performance Arts Festival (b. 2000). In 2005 he founded Jatiwangi Art Factory (JaF).

Adelina Luft is a curator, cultural manager and translator living between Bucharest and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In her curatorial practice she invests herself in modes of working that favor collaboration, processes, and exchanges, with an interest in minor narratives that question hegemonic forms of knowledge production. She holds a BA in Public Relations from the National University of Political Studies in Bucharest and a MA in Visual Art Studies from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. She is often invited to contribute with essays about Indonesian art, more recently for the book “A History of Photography in Indonesia” published by Amsterdam University Press. She participated in several curatorial residencies: Kuandu Museum of Fine Art in Taipei, ODD in Bucharest, and Curator’s Agenda in Vienna.

The event is organised by tranzit. ro, as part of a research of resilient practices in rural and natural environments, in the framework of the project C4R (Cultures for Resilience), co-financed by the EC's Creative Europe - Culture programme.