what kind of we could we be?collective thinking by collectives
Abstract
A concluding compilation of drawings, notes, and reflections from participants at documenta fifteen’s ‘What Kind of Collective Could We Be?’ workshop. This visual epilogue enacts collective thought in form and content, documenting humour, intimacy, and ‘affective communities’ that sustain collaborative art worlds beyond theory and institutional frameworks.
Keywords: documenta fifteen; counter-institutions; collective work
The workshop what kind of we could we be?: collective thinking by collectives was held on 11 September 2022 as a way of building upon documenta fifteen’s focus on collective practice. It brought together representatives of artistic and intellectual collectives to reflect upon curating, making, and thinking together. As a collaboration between Asia Forum and Worlding Public Cultures, the workshop was both theoretical and practical, and developed a proposal for praxis made by ‘practitheorizing’ counter-institutions. The images in this chapter were produced by the workshop’s participants; depicting drawings and mind-maps Beginning of page[p. 98] that are handmade, humorous, and playful in nature, they reflect the group’s thoughts on theories of collectivism. Yet beneath their light-hearted appearance, they also serve as more serious visual experiments into the possibilities of creating a ‘toolkit’ for collective work.
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© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.© 2025 ICI Berlin Press