Collective (im)Possibilities: The Politics of Too Many Dinner Parties

Collective (im)Possibilities: The Politics of Too Many Dinner Parties is a series of intervention which started from research about collectivity based on a basic question: how does collectivity being practised in the context of western country since this topic is often being discussed, and then attracted the attention of other parties, especially western countries, to conduct research about it in Indonesia.

During the six weeks residency in Project GOLEB (Amsterdam – The Netherland), the investigation around the idea of collectivity happen through several intervention such as studio visit which the artists who live in the building have to host meeting in their private space. The studios in the context of this group were also functions as a living space. Not just a place to work. These meetings look like something easy but at the same time it raise a tension between the host and the guest; hosting dinners; and hosting public presentations. Furthermore, these interventions continuously questioning the position of a host and a guest by intervening the space and time. 

Throughout the six weeks; all the dinners, studio visits, open studios, and presentations that happen were an intervention toward a closed-space, private, and separated from the idea of collectivity itself (the idea of collectivity that refers to experiences and collective practices in Indonesia where I came from). All those events brought up the choreographies among people who lives in the building. Being in the same neighborhood, constantly organizing events, until it appeared to be some kind of a demand to always be present in every event that occur, and at the same time the position of a guest/ host who I always play had been a proof that it required resilience among each artist who live here, including me. 

This project was presented in Project GOLEB, Amsterdam – The Netherland (2017).