Altermodern, a
portmanteau word
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words[Nicolas Bourriaud
Nicolas Bourriaud (born 1965) is a curator and art critic, who has curated a great number of exhibitions and biennials all over the world.
With Jérôme Sans, Bourriaud cofounded the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, where he served as codirector from 199 ...](_blank)
, 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
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
's fourth Triennial exhibition curated by Bourriaud.
Concept
In his keynote speech to the 2005 Art Association of Australia & New Zealand Conference, Nicolas Bourriaud explained:
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
Tate Britain 2009
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
:
[http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/audio/tate-triennial-2009-prologue-3-john-smith-hotel-diaries]
# The end of
postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
# Cultural hybridisation
# Travelling as a new way to produce forms
# The expanding formats of art
References
External links
Guardian.co.ukTate.org.ukTate Website: Altermodern Interview with Nicolas Bourriaud
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Visual arts genres
Contemporary art exhibitions
Criticism of postmodernism
Modernity
Art movements
Art history