<nettime> how the term 'Contemporary Art' is used

[David Garcia via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

I had a recent on-line discussion with writer and artist Matthew 
Collings recently offered a critique of the term 'contemporary art' the 
gist of which was that it was too loosely applied to actually mean 
anything significant.
I took issue with Matthew arguing in effect was that it was more 
interesting to look at how the term was actually used.
The term 'contemporary art' (e.g.Turner Prize) functions a bit like the 
term 'literary fiction' (e.g. Booker Prize) Both terms signify, *as an 
ideal* an author/artist is willing to raise difficult and complex 
questions, live with doubt and ambiguity even opacity. Refuse to give up 
all its secrets immediately, refuse to be likeable, And above all retain 
a degree of ungraspability. This makes relatively high demands on the 
audience, as well as on themselves. To get the benefits audience and 
artist have to put in the work. As the cliche goes.. its for anyone but 
not for everyone.
David Garcia
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