Medina suggests that the term ‘Contemporary’ is not able to be objectively defined nor fixed chronologically, because we are too entangled within ‘the now’ to have a view of it clearly because an individual point of view will be affected by a position of view. Medina’s idea is that art has a double reception. First, as a practice in relation to its hosts society and location, and secondly, it’s positioning critically. Suggesting the process is controlled predominantly by the elite that fund it, along with the academic structures that escort it.
This idea is supported by Umberto Eco in his essay ‘Towards Semiological Guerrilla Warfare’ where he states
’When someone everyday has to write as much news as his space allows, and it has to appear readable to an audience of diverse tastes, social class, education, throughout a country, the writers freedom is already finished: The contents of the message will not depend on the author but on the technical and sociological characteristics of the medium’ (Eco p. 136)
This supports Medina’s idea that both the system and medium changes the message. suggesting the same is true for art and critical thought. Leading to the chilling thought that Eco voices “The mass media do not transmit ideologies; they are themselves an ideology” (Eco p. 136).
The concept of the contemporary could be viewed as a backward glance with a planned obsolescence process akin to Marxist philosophy and systems of control, entwining production and consumption with the media and power networks in an eternal grand circuit, attempting to redefine the now.
Alternatively, a more optimistic view is expressed by art critic Jan Verwoert (Verwoert), in that the contemporary is expressed as different gates existing in different locations and times, all sharing and trading different points of view.
Medina believes the arena that art operates within has been compromised and repressed, and so questions contemporary arts objectivity, whereas Verwoert sees hope in artistic intellectual discussion.
The globalisation of the art market has linked some of these gates or portals, whether this dilutes and devalues them may not be pertinent as Eco suggests, linking isn’t the issue, but the medium it’s linked by. I lean towards Verwoert view of contemporary exchange, I find value in that process.
Bibliography
Eco, Umberto. "Towards a Semiological Guerilla Warfare." Eco, Umberto. Travels in Hyper-Reality. Trans. William Weaver. London, UK: Pan Books, 1986. 135-144.
Medina, Cuauhtémoc. "Contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses." Jan 2010. e-flux. 10 April 2010
Verwoert, Jan. "Standing on the Gates of Hell, My Services Are Found Wanting." 2009. e-flux. 10 April 2010
