The Curator Workshop: History, Archives and Residents' Memories
Sudut Kalisat is a neighbourhood community in Kalisat district, Jember, East Java who are interested in history and people's memories. Since 2015, they have regularly held the "Kalisat Tempo Doeloe" (KTD) archive exhibition, conducted archive and memory researches from residents' homes, raised funds, and worked together to realize an annual activity in a place they named the Ruang Ingatan (Space of Memories). In their seventh year, Sudut Kalisat wants to know more about the basic curatorial practice of supervising an art exhibition or archival exhibition.
Sudut Kalisat then invited two members of Kelompok Kurator Kampung, Rifandi Septiawan Nugroho and Ayos Purwoaji, to discuss determining the format and model of the curator workshop at Kalisat. In the end we agreed on a form of a curator's workshop that focuses on presentation and articulation of history, archives and residents' memories. The three of them, we feel, are close to the curatorial practice that Sudut Kalisat has developed over the last six years. This activity took place on 16-23 January 2022 which involved participation from young friends in Kalisat and other participants who came from Jember, Banyuwangi, Bondowoso, Sumenep and Jakarta.
The Workshop was held for six days with balanced proportions of theory and practice: three days to get to know and discuss theory, the remaining three days participants were asked to practice making a simple exhibition. Prior to designing the exhibition, participants were provided with basic curatorial knowledge such as history and forms of curatorial practice; articulation and curation; management and building resources; memory digging method; scenography and displays; also sort and select archives.
Apart from that, in the evening the participants were also invited to have discussions with several practitioners who are struggling in the same field. We invited Anitha Silvia from Pertigaan Map collective to tell us about the practice of walking ngalor-ngidul in Surabaya as an effort to document Surabaya and record the narratives that grow in coffee shops; Arif Furqan and Reza Kutjh from the Unhistoried collective shared stories about archive finds and family photo albums during the New Order era; Gintani Swastika from Ace House Collective discussed management and funding with examples from several art institutions in Yogyakarta; while Arief Rachman from the Serrum shared his experience regarding production management and planning an exhibition.
Apart from theory, the practice of making exhibitions is carried out using two approaches: using the residents' living room as a laboratory for the exhibition space and exploring the memory of the residents using the ahistoric method—as the Kalisat residents call for visiting or pilgrimage activities. Both of these approaches are offers developed from the "curatorship" practice that has been carried out by Sudut Kalisat. Through this workshop, the two approaches were developed as a working method that can be used by every workshop participant.
Workshop Zine & Short Report: Pamertè