De-Globalizing the Art World

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.