On the last page of his book, Bourriaud suggests to his audience that "...artists reactivate forms by inhabiting them..." and that "...instead of prostrating ourselves before works of the past, we can use them. <...> works can propose scenarios and art can be a form of using the world, an endless negotiation between points of view" (94).
While I love the idea that art is a negotiation between viewer, author, and context, Bourriaud seems to suggest that art should be judged by how many references it makes, and that the quality of a work lies not in its uniqueness but in its context. I am troubled by this, although I can hardly articulate why.
Some of the most enduring works have been created not by a collage of contexts, but by a singular vision taken from the mind of a single person. It seems wrong to me to assume, as Bourriaud does with his insistance on reactivation, that art is an act of social resistance. Not all art is subversive, and as Postproduction comes to its conclusion, Bourriaud pushes with ever greater insistence that art has become an activist platform, and that work with the most cultural and social appropriations is the most effective. There is an eschewal of tradition and craftsmanship inherent in this point of view that seems deeply flawed.
Jenny Holzer, Untitled, Installation, Venice, 2003
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