Party Office / “Queer Time: Kinships & Architectures”
A lumbung artist of documenta fifteen, curated by Ruangrupa
This satellite location at documenta fifteen holds a social-spatial exploration of ‘Queer Time’ at it’s focus, affirming the joy of trans* and BIPoC communities who have been systemically marginalized by ongoing violences. Taking forward our idea of parties as important sites of liberation, the space aims to reorder neo-liberal definitions of productive time, centering rest, rave, and radical pleasure as primal processes towards resilience.
Curated by Vidisha-Fadescha, with Shaunak Mahbubani
Design Credits: Amrish Kondurkar, Bär, Jonathan Eden, Fadescha
Exhibition Design: Amrish Kondurkar, Shahmen Suku, Shaunak Mahbubani, Fadescha
Mad Time Warp curated by Joey Cannizarro, Ramya Patnaik
The Archive as Contemporary Object X curated by Ali Akbar Mehta
HyperVigilant Mixes curated by Ramya Patnaik, Fadescha
Press: Abhinit Khanna
Project Managed by Juca Fiis, Karan Kaul
Curatorial advisors include Ali Akbar Mehta, Jyotsna Siddharth, Amrish Kondurkar, Abhinit Khanna, Ramya Patnaik, Aru, Vidha Saumya and Joey Cannizzaro.
18 June - 25 Sept 2022,
WH22, Kassel, Germany
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Party Office at documenta fifteen Retroflexive Diary Part 1(published in Mezosfera)
"..This violent incident, coupled with the media onslaught towards the exhibition at large, compounded by antagonism from the top management on both issues has resulted in our enthusiasm for this site being put into jeopardy. Targeted by the constant racist attacks on documenta fifteen, each day we wonder, what will come next? The lumbung needs a pressure release and we have the space for it. One week ago, cautiously, we decided to throw a party after exhibition hours only for lumbung artists and our local ecosystem. We enlisted the friendly security personnel posted outside the door to our venue to allow those with our secret image-invite to enter.
It was only in the animated chatter, bass reverb and familiar nooks of our reactivated dungeon that we found ourselves rooted again. Deep into the night on the wooden pew by the restroom, our friend Swazi delivered some hard truths. Swazi is part of the Kassel BPoC Collective – an amazing group of organizers from different backgrounds: Scholars, artists, DJs, and social workers – who have become integral to our presence in Kassel. They have taken on a wide range of kinship roles – regulars, DJs, bar and awareness workers, advocates, and most importantly, solid friends.."
Party Office at documenta fifteen Retroflexive Diary Part 2 (published in Mezosfera)
"..Safety is not an individual responsibility, it is a collective goal. Our team of vigilants, primarily composed of trans*/BPoc workers from the documenta ecosystem and organizers from the Kassel BPoC collective, put in the labour, every party night, to facilitate that. Two points of interaction at the door with two vigilants each. The first to voice our policy of radical exclusivity: This party is for Black, Brown, Trans* people and Women allies. If you don’t identify within these groups, a BIPoC or trans* person must vouch for your respectful behaviour during the party. The second team at the door asks you to read our Code of Conduct and explicitly consent to it. Mutual consent is key to collective pleasure. Then inside, awareness vigilants, in pairs, make rounds throughout the space every 20 minutes looking out for anyone who may be in a position of danger to themselves or others. These situations are dealt with by following a protocol emphasizing de-escalation, devised along with Max Folly. Our team of vigilants is led by a HyperVigilante who coordinates everyone’s roles, ensuring moments of rest for the team, and problem solving throughout. Our vigilant choreography is now in place, and continually evolving from our learnings after each party.
Care, too, cannot be an individual or bilateral responsibility. Care must be a collective function. In the abundant lumbung we found a circle of care in our queer compatriots. During our darkest moments of isolation, after the transphobic attack, we dearly remember Sami and Kenan coming to our apartment and dragging us out to get some fresh air. In those moments no one needed to explain or even discuss the complexity of the situation, the attacks from all sides. We felt such nourishment in the act of gathering. In holding each other we are surviving.."
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Party Office is an anticaste, antiracist, transfeminist art and social space based in New Delhi, India, also at satellite locations and as conceptual architecture. Through publications, grants, radical archives, conversations of life lived, social gatherings, parties and more, we are building transnational dialogues on empathetic futures, care communities and radical agency. Party Office is founded by artist-curator Vidisha-Fadescha in 2020.
