Institutional Experiments: Progressive Responses to the Dissolution of Autonomous Art
Institutional Experiments: Progressive Responses to the Dissolution of Autonomous Art

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses radicalised forms of new institutionalism in the field of contemporary visual arts, which has emerged since 2010. The text focuses on case studies of European institutions associated in the international coalition L’internationale, to analyse how those institutions bend conventions of the modernist institution of art. The article argues that the institutions analysed move beyond the conceptual divisions embedded in modernism, such as the distinction between high art and popular creativity, or between use value and aesthetical value of art. In this way, radical institutions respond to the transformation of both function and understanding of contemporary art, prompted by economic and social incorporation of artistic activities. The text discusses progressive institutional models of museums 3.0, the neoliberal museums of 1% and the nationalist museums, as contradictory responses to the underlying, structural tension, caused by the dissolution of the modernist frame of art.

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