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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 ruangrupa’s lumbung model, the book traces how Indonesian artistic collectives, Palestinian cultural institutions, and curatorial experiments navigated the shift from post–Cold War globalization to today’s fractured landscape of de-globalization and renewed claims to rootedness. By analyzing tensions between postcolonial critique, German memory politics, and NGO-driven cultural infrastructures, the book situates contemporary art within the broader contradictions of financialization, sovereignty, and affect. Offering both historical depth and critical intervention, this book illuminates how the art world’s infrastructures of solidarity, militancy, and collectivism have been transformed—and constrained—over the past three decades.
"In De-Globalizing the Art World, Adrian Anagnost argues that the post–Cold War vision of a borderless global art world has given way to a new era shaped by local histories and decolonial politics. Through a compelling account of the controversies surrounding Documenta 15 in 2022, she illuminates the tensions between global art institutions and local political realities. Moving between Germany, Ramallah, Jakarta, and Yogyakarta, Anagnost combines nuanced historical insight with sharp analysis, offering both a guide to a pivotal moment in contemporary art and a model for art writing after globalization."—Tom McDonough, Associate Professor of Art History at Binghamton University, State University of New York, USA.
"This marvellous book explores the fault lines of global contemporary art that became visible in the heated discussions surrounding Documenta 15 curated by the Indonesian collective ruangrupa. It is highly instructive not only for experts, critics and practitioners but for all those who take an interest in the structures and conditions of the public sphere in a globalized world. Tracing the reconfigurations of the art world from the 1990s to the present, the book investigates the tensions between the imperatives of legibility within a circuit of global art biennials and of rootedness in local contexts that permeate artistic production and art criticism today. It is a forceful plea to acknowledge the heterogeneity of the contemporary art world and to accept the contradictions between its participants’ imaginaries. Debating current artistic strategies of affective consensus and ideas of political immediacy, the book highlights the importance of venues that can harbor conflict and dissent both without moralizing and without false reconciliations. Its case studies are exceptionally well researched and attest to the importance of grounding the discourses and practices of contemporary art in thorough historiographical work. On the topic of Documenta 15 and its genealogies, the book will be an instant classic."—Prof. Dr. Markus Klammer, Schaulager Professorship for Art Theory, Department of Art History, University of Basel, Switzerland.
Adrian Anagnost is associate professor of modern and contemporary art at Tulane University in New Orleans and the author of Spatial Orders, Social Forms: Art and the City in Modern Brazil (2022).
Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. The Long 1990s: “The Global” and Utopias of Circulation; 2. Infrastructures of Radicality: From Militancy to the NGO Art World; 3. Autonomy after Oslo: Palestinian Artists and the Bureaucracy of Solidarity; 4. BDS and Germany’s Politics of Accusation; 5. The Antideutsche Impasse; 6. Taring Padi, Indonesian Political Art, and the Limits of Global Legibility; 7. Militancy and Merch: Genealogies of Collectivism at documenta fifteen 8. Ruangrupa, Majelis, and Managerial Mysticism; 9. Network Effect: The Ends of Circulation; 10. Conclusion: The 1990s Called; They Want Their Politics Back; Bibliography; Index.