Monday, February 15, 2010

Rewriting Modernity


Bourriaud claims that "the historical task of this early twenty-first century is...to rewrite modernity...not to start at zero or to find oneself encumbered by the storehouse of history, but to inventory and select, to use and download." (93).

This approach demands a certain amount of eclecticism, mixing the past and the present. How does this relate to Lyotard's assertion that "if artists give into the eclecticism of consumption, they serve the interests of the techno-scientific and post industrial world and shirk their critical duties."? (92).

I believe that Lyotard's vision of contemporary art is somewhat grim; he does not trust the artist to be able to appropriate the language of his/her time in the service of a greater conceptual goal. From the multiculturalism of the altermodern, hybridity has become the new norm, and in order to be relevant, it could be argued that artists need to adapt their techniques to represent their times.


Gunilla Klingberg, Cosmic Matter, scaffolding, printed tape, high-polished metal. Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, 2009

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