December 2009
7 posts
(ceci n'est pas l'avant-garde)
The question of the failure of the avant-garde is a perennial topic in surveys of progressive art practice. As a practice that sets its task as dismantling mainstream dominant ideology, it claims a nearly impossible position. Once it has been subsumed into cultural institutions of the museum, criticism and art historical accounts, the earlier radical content seems nullified. Without this...
WatchYoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1964
Positioned within the context of Fluxus, Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, in which audience members were instructed to cut her clothing, might be seen as an example of avant-garde success. Fluxus managed until recently to largely escape reification through its obscurity. Further, George Maciunas, its major director and interpreter rejected the signification of Fluxus as...
Bibliography
Buchloh, Benjamin. Neo-Avantgarde and Culture Industry. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000. Debord, Guy. “Theory of the Derive.” 1959. The Situationist International Anthology. Ed. Ken Knabb. Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006. 62-66. Debord, Guy. “Theses on the Paris Commune.” 1962. The Situationist International Anthology. Ed. Ken Knabb. Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006. 398-401.
Eagleton, Terry....
Curated by Stacy Jo Scott, December 2009.
