Collective Banners 2023 – 2026
Exhibition

Sale Docks, Dorsoduro 265, 30123, Venezia.

Opening: Sunday, May 3, 7:00 – 9:00 pm, free entrance.

Exhibition: 3 May – 31 July 2026

Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday
11:30 am – 2:00 pm
3:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Artist Talk: Taring Padi in conversation with Sale Docks and the Institute of Radical Imagination: May 7, 15.00 pm.

People’s Liberation is an exhibition of a series of large scale banners  that were created for political education, propaganda, and mobilisation. Apart from woodcut posters and cardboard puppets, banner is one of three mediums and artistic practices that Indonesian collective of art workers Taring Padi has been utilising as a political tool  since 1998. 

Following the dismantling of People’s Justice banner in Documenta 15 on 21 June 2022, Taring Padi reclaimed the condemned banner and transformed it into a platform to agitate, educate and organise. Between 2023 and 2026, Taring Padi developed a new series of People’s Justice banners, produced largely through collaboration with progressive organisations, collectives and individuals across four continents. With one exception, all works in this series are painted on canvas, with dimensions ranging from 450×450 cm to 1200×600 cm. Collectively, the series manifests a continuation of the original banner’s function, returning from a contested exhibition object into an itinerant, street protest property and collaborative instrument of resistance.

Five banners from the People’s Justice series will be on display at the People’s Liberation exhibition at Sale Dock, Venice from 3 May to 31 July 2026:

1. People’s Justice series no. 2, entitled in Portuguese Retomar Nossa Terra (Reclaimed Our Land, acrylic on canvas, 450×450 cm) is the first from this iteration. Created in April 2023 and in collaboration with Framer Framed Amsterdam based exhibition space,Casa do Povo, progressive Jewish collective, Landless Workers’ Movement/MST and Tricontinental institute in Sao Paolo, the banner describes the popular movement against extractivist capitalism in Brazil.

1. People’s Justice series no. 5 entitled in Javanese Kendeng Lestari, Nyawiji Kanggo Ibu Bumi (Everlasting Kendeng: Being One with Mother Earth, acrylic on canvas, 450×450 cm) created in the end of 2023 in Taring Padi’s studio in Yogyakarta Indonesia. The banner is the culmination of the collective decades-long struggle with the Kendeng community in Central Java in the fight against the development of a cement factory in their area. The banner is accompanied by 24 rontek (small banners) and 10 panji (pennants). The rontek is made by individual members of Taring Padi addressing various issues from the struggle. The Panji inscribed mantras, prayers and songs of the Kendeng community. 

1. People’s Justice series no. 7 entitled in Arabic  عدالة الشعب (People’s Justice, acrylic on canvas, 450×450 cm). The production of the banner started in Brussel, Belgium in January, continued in Brisbane, Australia in March and finalised in Taring Padi’s studio in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in June 2024. Narrating the struggle, hope and international solidarity of Palestinian people, the banner was collectively produced by The Kitchen, Globe Aroma, Subversive Film, The Question of Funding and Learning Palestine.

1. People’s Justice series no. 8 carries two titles: Narbiny nguluk nidja doorntj baarniny, moorditj dooytj-doornt (Care together, strong together), an expression in Noongar of resistance grounded in unity and compassion; and Rakyat Bersatu tak bisa dikalahkan (The People united cannot be defeated), an Indonesian protest slogan that resonates with global social justice movements. It differs both in shape and size (505.5 x 691.8 cm) from the other banners in the series and is executed charcoal and acrylic on canvas.  The banner was created in Perth, Australia in November 2024 and it was the collective first time collaboration with individuals(rather than collectives) of aborigin artists from Western Australia: Sharyn Egan (Noongar), Yabini Kickett (Ballardong, Whadjuk), Ilona McGuire (Whadjuk, Ballardong, Yuat, Kungarakan) and Tyrown Waigana (Wardandi Noongar, Ait Koedhal)

1. People’s Justice series no. 9 entitled People’s Liberation (acrylic on canvas, 450×450 cm) is the latest edition and in collaboration with Institute of Radical Imagination in which Taring Padi is also a member. The production of the banner started in Yogyakarta in February 2026 and will be unveiled for the first time in the opening of the exhibition that bears the same title in May.

The exhibition will also present a documentation of People’s Justice series no. 1: People’s Justice (acrylic on canvas, 1200 x 800 cm) which was created in Taring Padi’s squatted space in Yogyakarta in 2002. 

As an addition, Taring Padi will also exhibit banner entitled Basta Schiavitu (Stop Slavery, acrylic on canvas 300×400 cm) that was produced in Rome in September 2025  with the assistance of  Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL Italian General Confederation of Labour) and facilitated by Cantadora gallery. The banner visualises the struggle of Sikh migrant workers in the agriculture sector around Rome.

People’s Liberation banner (People’s Justice series no. 9) carries the slogan “Abolish Fascism, Organize Autonomy.” The slogan is not an empty rallying cry, but emerged from collaboration between the Institute of Radical Imagination and Sale Docks.

Sale Docks is an activist art space in Venice. Founded through an occupation in 2007, it represents a genuinely autonomous artistic space in a city increasingly dominated by private foundations backed by global billionaires and shaped by the presence of the Venice Biennale. As a collective, Sale Docks is engaged on multiple fronts: advocating for the rights of cultural workers and fostering artistic internationalism. Sale Docks actively participate in Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), a solidarity campaign with Palestine that calls for a boycott of the 2026 Venice Biennale in response to its decision to host the Israeli Pavilion.

The Institute of Radical Imagination, for its part, is a transnational collective of art workers, with members from Southern Europe, Indonesia, and Palestine. The Institute’s practice operates at the intersection of art and the commons, grounded in a shared political commitment that is antifascist, transfeminist, decolonial, and antispeciesist.

Additionally, Taring Padi’s present in Venice will include the  creation of a new large-scale mural on the exterior walls of Laboratorio Occupato Morion, a key space for the city’s social movements. Work on the mural will begin in  early April 2026.

The People’s Liberation exhibition is produced by Sale Docks, the Institute of Radical Imagination, and Collective of Art Workers Taring Padi, with the solidarity supports and collaborations from Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, Casa do Povo, Tricontinental Institute, Framer Framed, Jaringan Masyarakat Peduli Pegunungan Kendeng, The Kitchen, Globe Aroma, Subversive Film, The Question of Funding, Learning Palestine, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Cantadora, ProppaNOW, Milani Gallery, Manifesto Press.