A Collective Spirit

Ruangrupa like to have a good time. This was one of the reasons why Farid Rakun joined the group as a student back in 2010. “It didn’t hurt that they liked to party,” Rakun says. “It was a place I knew I would have a good time.”

The Jakarta-based collective offers more than just a good time. Loosely translated, ruangrupa means a “space for art”. It’s hard to define what or who Ruangrupa is at any given moment, but broadly, it is a non-profit group that disseminates artistic ideas through publications, and by holding workshops and staging exhibitions, among other programming. Made up of artists, curators and people with various skill sets, its structure is intentionally fluid, and members adapt it to whatever is best suited for the project they’re working on.

“Each of us has our own interest and strength, so we go out and do our own thing, and come back together,”