“The way our society works does not leave us space nor time to move alone. So, most likely things are done together. Some people call it DIWO (do it with others). But, these terms are unlike Coca-Cola, which is definitely an imported culture. The fact that we always rely on each other and do things together have been in our culture since forever, maybe even before that.”

In a talk based on her recent essay “Why do it together when we can do it alone?” (co-written with David Morris), Grace Samboh, a curator from Indonesia, revisits the history of Indonesian art collectives from 1960s onwards, and art practices “which have a tendency to be understood with reference to social change and development”. Through a multifaceted lens that combines Javanese culture, social changes, and patriarchal politics, Samboh delivers a vivid overview of Indonesian art practices with a fundamental consensus of working together.

Grace Samboh is a curator who lives between Yogyakarta and Medan, Indonesia. Due to questioning (a little bit) too many things all at once, she does curatorial work as well as research.

The talk will be conducted in English.