The current trends, motives and messages of art have ventured so far away from the original postmodernism that the contemporary art can no longer be called postmodern, postulates the French curator Nicolas Bourriaud.
The beginning of this suggested new, ‘altermodern’, era was the Tate Triennal exhibition at 2009. Altermoderism is suggested to deal with the following concepts:
The conflict between the global and local no longer dominates. A different relationship to culture and identity is suggested. We are no longer bound to a nation at a given time. The concept of identity is ‘creolized’, i.e. bits and pieces are gathered here and there. The individual places have lost their concrete meaning due to increased communication, travel and migration. Journey, movement is depicted, across both space and time.
The exhibition itself in Tate Modern had eight themes:
-energy
-travel
-viatorization (viator=to travel – gives movement and dynamics to form)
-borders
-archive (contemporary/history mixed)
-exiles
-heterochronia (existing within many times)
-docu-fiction
Time will tell if the concept catches wind. Hanba is puzzled by the term itself. Alter modern as in alter ego? Different modern? Or alter as in the German word for old? Old modern? Why choose to call the era modern at all? If we really are past both the modern project as well as the critique therof, why even bother with the word modern? Why these nine themes? Is alter modern a thematically narrow era? Surely art can deal with other themes than these nine?
Still, hanba’s excited to think the times are finally changing… 🙂 Personally not interested in any more critique of the modern project or puzzling intertextuality for the ‘already salvaged’.
Examples of artists? Walead Beshty, Bob and Roberta Smith, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Fatimah Tuggar.
Further reading: Tate Modern’s Alter Modern exhibition page.
Arts, Architecture, Thoughts 