In a globalized and hyperconnected world, contemporary artists are influenced by and exposed to a wide range of social phenomena related to migration, contamination and cultural hybridity. Artists, while displaying elements of cultural specificity within their practice and language, are no longer limited by origin and culture and therefore they elaborate translational narratives within the framework of a global and international artistic discourse. The French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud in his essay titled “The Radicant”, taking inspiration from the metaphor of the root conceptualized by Gilles Deleuze, elaborates the concept of Altermodern to remap the shift of paradigm underpinning contemporary art.
A plant, like a tree with its vertical root, symbolises Modernism with its universalist ideas and absolute truths; Postmodernism, characterized by relativism and multiplicity, can be associated with the images of a root-grass embodied in the rhizome; the concept of Altermodern can be compared to a rampant plant, developing in different directions and forming new roots as it moves. It can be associated to fluidity, dynamism and contamination and it can be considered a prism through which to interpret contemporary art.
In a globalized and hyperconnected world, contemporary artists are influenced by and exposed to a wide range of social phenomena related to migration, contamination and cultural hybridity. Artists, while displaying elements of cultural specificity within their practice and language, are no longer limited by origin and culture and therefore they elaborate translational narratives within the framework of a global and international artistic discourse. The French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud in his essay titled “The Radicant”, taking inspiration from the metaphor of the root conceptualized by Gilles Deleuze, elaborates the concept of Altermodern to remap the shift of paradigm underpinning contemporary art.
A plant, like a tree with its vertical root, symbolises Modernism with its universalist ideas and absolute truths; Postmodernism, characterized by relativism and multiplicity, can be associated with the images of a root-grass embodied in the rhizome; the concept of Altermodern can be compared to a rampant plant, developing in different directions and forming new roots as it moves. It can be associated to fluidity, dynamism and contamination and it can be considered a prism through which to interpret contemporary art.