Hans Belting
is participant at
Where is Art Contemporary? The Global Challenge of Art Museums II
Abstract
Why the Museum? New Markets, Colonial Memories, and Local Politics
The conference title serves as a guide to the intended meaning. It does not ask “What is Contemporary Art?” but instead asks “Where is Contemporary Art?” and thus asks a geographical question which a priori is a museum question too. New Art Museums are created with almost the same speed as the biennials in other parts of the world, but they do not have the same purpose. The question, thus, is whether also Contemporary Art has a geography, much as museums are defined by their geography. We even may ask whether art, after its former universalism and contrary to the global market, also lives from local meanings which counteract the pressure of globalization and favour national or cultural idioms rather than falling victim to global conformism. Museums are site specific (a term from exhibition art) and differ by their geographical location.
