Altermodern

Summary

Altermodern, a portmanteau word defined by Nicolas Bourriaud, is an attempt at contextualizing art made in today's global context as a reaction against standardisation and commercialism. It is also the title of the Tate Britain's fourth Triennial exhibition curated by Bourriaud.

Concept edit

In his keynote speech to the 2005 Art Association of Australia & New Zealand Conference, Nicolas Bourriaud explained:[1]

Artists are looking for a new modernity that would be based on translation: What matters today is to translate the cultural values of cultural groups and to connect them to the world network. This “reloading process” of modernism according to the twenty-first-century issues could be called altermodernism, a movement connected to the creolisation of cultures and the fight for autonomy, but also the possibility of producing singularities in a more and more standardized world.

Altermodern can essentially be read as an artist working in a hypermodern world or with supermodern ideas or themes.

Exhibitions edit

Tate Britain 2009 edit

The Tate exhibition includes a series of four one-day events (called "Prologues"), aiming to "introduce and provoke debate" around the Triennial's themes. Each Prologue includes lectures, performances, film and a manifesto text and attempts to define what the curator sees as the four main facets of Altermodern:[2][3][4]

  1. The end of postmodernism
  2. Cultural hybridisation
  3. Travelling as a new way to produce forms[clarification needed]
  4. The expanding formats of art

References edit

  1. ^ "[AAANZ 2005]: Nicolas Bourriaud - Keynote". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008.
  2. ^ Tate triennial 2009 prologuetate.org.uk Archived 9 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Tate triennial 2009 prologuetate.org.uk Archived 4 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Tate Triennial 2009 Prologue 3: John Smith - Hotel Diaries".

External links edit

  • Guardian.co.uk
  • Tate.org.uk
  • Tate Website: Altermodern
  • Interview with Nicolas Bourriaud