INLAND

Over the last ten years, INLAND has emerged as a collaborative arts and action platform for cultural and land workers, promoting critical inquiry surrounding themes of territory, land use, and social change. Focusing on multiple axes of labor and human life (such as the Economy, Knowledge, Inhabitation, and Training), educational projects such as the Shepherds School, the New Curriculum and, more recently, the INLAND Academy, have been developed, and recently shown at the renowned quinquennial German contemporary art exhibition, documenta fifteen in 2022. INLAND describes the Academy’s goal as to expand outward from existing arts education and theory into rural communities and practice by borrowing from the fields of Agroecology, Ecological Economy, Peasant Studies, and Critical Sociology, among others. At documenta fifteen, INLAND carried out a series of sessions and workshops called, “Campo Adentro,” designed and organized by Fernando García-Dory. The project focused on the relationship between art, agriculture, and rural life, aiming to analyze current perceptions and representations of the countryside and its identity. Campo Adentro’s participation at documenta fifteen highlighted the importance of understanding rural contexts and their connection to broader cultural and political debates pertaining to industrial production and sustainable labor practices. Additionally, INLAND’s installation at Ottoneum (during documenta) presented a cabinet of curiosities, including knowledge from farmlands, forest ecology installations, and a sonic anthropology of rural decline and reinvigoration.