De-Globalizing the Art World

Contemporary Art and the Case of Documenta 15

This book examines documenta fifteen (2022) as a turning point in global art politics, from ruangrupas Indonesian lumbung model to Palestinian cultural infrastructures. It traces how debates over collectivity, decolonization, and memory politics reveal the contradictions of globalization, financialization, and contemporary arts search for rootedness.

De-globalizing the Art World examines the political and aesthetic transformations of global contemporary art from the 1990s to the present. Centered on documenta fifteen and the controversies surrounding ruangrupas lumbung model, the book traces how Indonesian artistic collectives, Palestinian cultural institutions, and curatorial experiments navigated the shift from postCold War globalization to todays fractured landscape of de-globalization and renewed claims to rootedness. By analyzing tensions between postcolonial critique, German m