Artist and writer Farid Rakun, a member of the collective ruangrupa, offers a critical diagnosis of contemporary museums. He argues that institutions in his Indonesian context are either state-run and subject to unstable political direction, or privately owned and driven by colonialist, capital-accumulating mentalities. He laments the intertwining of these models, which prioritizes revenue and growth over genuine cultural service.
This critique matters because it challenges the fundamental purpose and structure of museums from a Global South perspective. Rakun suggests that hope lies not in expansion or global prestige, but in institutions that embrace their local roles, care equally for community and commercial art, and are willing to dismantle or radically transform their existing models to serve their immediate ecosystems.