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.

"The State of Critique in the Times of Accellerationism"

Just finished the paper onthe state of critique that has been published in the Echo Gone Wrong magazine. See the abstract below and this is the link to the full text.

The paper addresses a problem of dismissal in relation to the critical engagements with the contemporary culture. It will be argued that in the hyper-networked and post-institutional world critique is often subjected to the demand to be ‘constructive’—a violent gesture according to which critique either fails to fulfil this demand and becomes dismissed and marginalised, or it embraces the given conditions and becomes dependent on them thus ceasing to be ‘critical’ in the strict sense of the word. Instead of being critical of the complex conditioning beyond the new manifestations of accellerating capitalism, critique either accepts the demonisation and marginalisation, or embraces the given state of events as something that is ‘uncriticisable.’ Thus critique faces a challenge of finding its voice in the world where all our practices—both subversive and recreational—are no longer immune to capitalisation. I will insist that a deconstructive approach provides us with a chance to escape the violent dichotomy of victim/immune system and embrace the autoimmunity of everything that contemporary culture renders as ‘pure’ and ‘necessary’—i.e., immune from thinking, reflection, and critique.

Waltzing with the Undead: Before, After, Beyond, and Without Photography

Gytis Skudžinskas, "12 Truths of Photography" in "Titanikas" gallery (Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius). 2015

Echo Gone Wrong Magazine published my reflections on contemporary photography and G.Skužinskas' show "12 Truths of Photography":

It is an attempt to reflect on an exhibition “12 Truths of Photography” (“Titanikas” Gallery, Vilnius, 27.01.-14.03.2015)—a series of media-specific artworks created over the period of the last decade by a photographer Gytis Skudžinskas. The fact that the exhibition has already taken place will not prevent us from talking about it as if it was still present, especially having in mind that a photographic exhibition, on its own part, can—and this text invites to exercise this possibility—take place without the conventional presence of photography as such. It is also an attempt to show how the event presents itself in this mode of ‘as if’ by becoming operative in both ways: positive (as if it is still there) and negative (let’s carry on as if nothing happened). Instead of it being a ‘review’ or a generalisation of Skudžinskas’ oeuvre, this reflection will try to problematize the very cultural context of his retrospective gesture, namely: what does it mean to turn towards photography as a medium and photographic practice today?

See full text in EchoGoneWrong.com