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Garage Rotterdam is currently showing the exhibition Underdeveloped, curated by Reza Afisina (member of ruangrupa, co-creater of the Gudskul, artistic director of documenta fifteen) and reinaart vanhoe (artist, collaborator of ruangrupa, teacher at WdKA, co-initiator of ook_ space). This exhibition is the first of a series of three exhibitions, all focusing on the term ‘underdeveloped’, that will be spread out throughout the following year. Here lumbung manifests itself through collaborative practices, focusing on the local, creating spaces for sharing knowledge and materials, various harvests available to view and a programme of events for the public to get involved in.

Afisina and vanhoe were inspired by analogue film development processes. Underdeveloped also refers to ‘over-developed’ views on education, quality and value and creates a ground for questioning and exploring these notions. Much like documenta fifteen, which brought attention to largely invisible ongoing processes of collective, community-based, and socially engaged art around the world; the kind of art that was considered not valuable or exhibit-able by public arts institutions or the commercial art world. This exhibition attempts to highlight these ongoing processes of working and learning together. Although the works sometimes seem unconnected, almost each one of them serves as an invitation to engage, take part in or activate. Thus, still bringing a common factor in a somewhat fragmented show.

As you enter the exhibition space, the first work that greets you is red on coffee, cotton and grass (2024) by Marishka Soekarna. The installation of a floral poppy curtain in front of mural featuring watermelons, symbolises resilience despite struggle and solidarity with Palestinian people. Its placement in close proximity to the window makes it feel like you are entering a domestic setting. As you walk on, another homely feature appears: a kitchen block stands in the middle of the exhibtion space. The kitchen is open to be activated at any time and has already been used during zine-making and ceramic sessions, to provide participants with a bowl of soup. It will be used again during the final Natafelen event with dishes made by Homesick Canteen, an initiative by Bellina Erby and Yen-Ting Kuan, where home recipes will be served. For the artists, these recipes function as archives, stored with emotions, memories and relations. Through a shared dinner, these archives are made collective.

A colourful woven shrine carpet takes my attention. The work called untitled (2024) by ook_ anders, is a rendition of a work that was also present at documenta fifteen. The carpet is pieced together by using various woven segments made by many collaborative hands. On the carpet lay microphones and books to read. It is an open invitation to be activated through weaving or even through the simple act of sitting on it. The carpet gives an opportunity for conversation; through the process of collective labour, but also by providing a collective space and an understanding that difficult conversations are welcome. Together with the other people on the carpet, you suddenly form a temporary community. 

The show brings forth a rich interwoven network of residues, archives, harvests, local collective groups and arts projects, all brought together in a lumbung constellation. This first edition of Underdeveloped focusses on Rotterdam, and especially highlights local projects. Such as the photographic work of Zoë Cochia, and thereby highlighting the important work of Niffo Galerie — a social project, art space, education space, and a community living room in the neighbourhood of Afrikanderwijk that was initiated by the artist in 2014. Though the work of Niffo Galerie itself is not in the show, the common local knowledge of her important work as its organiser is present. Her photography is shown in proximity to both the documentation of an in-situ class harvest of Willem de Kooning Academy’s Autonomy Lab in Rotterdam, and to the publications, drawings and harvest documentation of Cooperativa Cráter Invertido in Mexico City. This juxtaposition shows the similarities of artistic and educational processes that are occurring in completely different parts of the world. Seeing these works physically in the same space draws parallels between these relations, while providing mutual support and nurture.

Throughout the exhibition, ideas of shared knowledge, ideas, food, and tools are strongly present. With MUL – THEE – FUHNGK – SHUH – NL (2024) Jorien Ketelaar & Floor van Meeuwen created a meeting place for visitors of the exhibition, local residents and neighbours, where they could read publications made by the artists and collaborators, eat soup, and join in on making ceramics. There work serves as an invitation for others and only exists because of its collective core. 

Behind the kitchen, in the corner I am enticed by Growing Infrastructures (2024): a workshop and publication station ‘PubliCart’ by Tomi Hilsee. A mobile bike cart is surrounded by pegboards that can be used for hangings, workshops or displays. It is an ongoing installation which will be developed over the course of a year as a mobile station providing tools that facilitate connections, support, and the sharing of experience. Throughout the exhibition, it is used for strengthening bonds between neighbours in conjunction with other projects. For example, a Garage Sale event that took place in collaboration between the projects of Tomi Hilsee and Jorien Ketelaar & Floor van Meeuwen allowed neighbours, students of the WdKA, passersby, friends and colleagues to connect. The ‘PublicCart’ installation evolved into a space for clothes exchange and donation, transforming the art space into an inviting place.

There is a lot packed in this show: filmsby Patrick Mudekereza featuring Lubumbashi where land is being privatised, publications of Reading Sideways Press, a painting installation by Hassan Omar Ahmad depicting a journey to Europe, by Vincent van Velsens in-situ installation Underdeveloped: Nature, Naked, Children and Poverty (2024) commenting on the Western gaze on the ‘underdeveloped world’. The artists investigate the local, the inter-local, they are unpacking and re-evaluating education.

Underdeveloped serves as an invitation for situatedness and comments on how geographic regions and artistic practices are viewed as underdeveloped or inadequate. Each activation and event is about working collaboratively, about being together, about sharing resources, relating to not only to the organisers and the public or between neighbours and arts communities, but also to artists and collectives in faraway locations. The exhibition becomes a literal space of surplus of knowledge. It is a playful yet grounded show, and most importantly gives method for claiming and occupying art institutions in an unconventional but purposeful way. My main questions for this exhibition, and for other lumbung-like exhibitions are: how important is the static presentation of these continuous practices? And why there is a need for showing the residue ongoing processes? For me, the importance of the exhibition lies within the real-time connections, the sharing of knowledges and resources through gathering and through being together during various activation moments. Not in capturing this collectivity in one moment. Lumbung is an evolving practice and not a static concept after all.