On the Rejuvenation of Contemporary Culture

After encountering numerous press releases and official blurbs for the contemporary art events, I could not help to notice that, apparently, it has now became a rule of thumb to include the sentences like "So-and-so (b. 1990-ish) is an independent curator based in [Amsterdam/London/New York]. She graduated in [art-related-something] at the [University of X] with a research thesis on [trendy name]." The thing is that when you are a twenty-something graduate (and the majority of the contemporary executives and curators indeed are), your "research thesis" (which is often simply a cooler way to name an MA degree) is at best only a first academic attempt at coherence and rigorousness, and it is still not even close to a research. Absolute majority of academics I spoke with admit that their BAs and MAs are, well, sh*t (and I include myself in this list), because thinking and writing does not come easy when you are still a fresher. Let's be frank here—our "research theses" of the tender age are nothing but stepping stones into the "real work" that begins only after you embarass yourself with those naive attempts at grandeur and originality. However the tendency to include the achievements into the bios of the new wave of emerging wunderkinds of contemporary art is just astounding. In other words, the truth of this trend is quite clear: in many respects the actuality of contemporary art belongs to freshers that are quick at self-representation, mimicry, and networking. They know what they want—immediately and instinctively, like baby turtles that go straight towards the sea as soon as they hatch from their eggs—and their first attempts at anything are the ultimate good of whatever is meant by contemporary culture. Critical thinking is not included. They don't change their minds. And if they do, the culture follows.