Altermodern, a blend 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]

External links[edit]

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