유목적 미술가를 통해 보는 전지구화 시대 미술의 난제들

Abstract

The boundary between First and Second worlds was broken down at the end of the 1980s, which had been epitomized by the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. It was about the same time when there emerged in the art world the notion of global art.’ Standing in contrast to the term ‘world art’ that has been associated with the colonialist notion of the art of the non-west, which posits itself always in the past and at the opposite end of Euro-American modernism, ‘global art’ refers to the transnationality of contemporary artistic practice in constant border crossings. In the global art scenes, there also appeared a new breed of ‘nomadic artists,’ those who create and exhibit works at different international venues. The frequent biennals and art fairs, and the commissions from various international art institutions allow the nomadic artists always on the move. The production of artwork not only reflects the culture and social conditions of the artist’s origin, but those of the locality the artist is visiting. The conflicts and negotiations these itinerant artists occasion bring up several issues of the contemporary art. First, what is at stake is the identity of the artist. Regarding the limited amount of time that has been allowed to the artist in the frame of exhibition in the host institution, how much of the locality of the place where s/he conducts the project could possibly be reflected in the artwork? If the artist negotiates the culture of his or her origin with that of the place s/he visits, the problems of translation should occur in both sides. Secondly, there can be noted in their practice an increasing loss of ‘site-specificity.’ In merely reproducing and restaging similar characteristics or methods across different global venues, their practice degrades into an island of artistic signifiers. These repetitive individual acts and attitudes even foretell the looming danger of the ‘return of the author.’ Thirdly, what follows such acts is the hegemonic status of the nomadic artists. The celebration of cultural syncreticism and hybridity could empower the nomadic artists who could have more access to the world-wide artistic venues compared to those who work in the localities. Equally problematic is how features of syncreticism tend to dismiss conflicts and tensions between cultures, which can unwittingly serve as a podium for the assertion of conservative politics that praise the status quo. The final, but not the least important, issue is that of the viewer-participant. The previous discourses about the nomadic artist have usually been centered around the aritst’s identity and issues of site-specificity. The ‘viewer-specificity’ has been loosely defined according to different categories including territorial borders, gender, and classes. Since the nomadic artists attempt to ‘construct’ a transnational identity, their works potentially remain precluded from viewers’ expectations. Could meanings other than individual associations to the work possibly emerge from these nomadic works? To delve into these complex issues, this paper looks into the arguments around ‘Relational Aesthetics,’ and its revisionist views suggested by Jacques Rancière and Claire Bishop who propose the art that provokes and discloses the conflicts and dissensus rather than conceals them.