Cuauhtemoc Medina, “contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses”, e-flux journal, #2, 01/2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103.
Cuauhtémoc Medina is an art critic, curator, and historian who lives and works in Mexico City. He holds a PhD in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex, UK. Medina is a researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas at the National University of Mexico.
Medina asks, ‘What is contemporary art?’ and suggests a coining of contemporary art as an art movement such as Modernism, which will eventually end. He states that there are specific characteristics to an artwork which makes it contemporary, for example, one of those characteristics is that the work must “demand a double reception”[1], a reception from the general public as well as a “sophisticated theoretical recuperation”.[2]
In ‘Under the Sign of Labour’, Sabeth Buchmann attempts to define Conceptual Art by stating “Conceptual art was successful in establishing the idea that instead of being measurable only in terms of the fact of material production, the form of art’s symbolic value should be equally open to calibration using scales of social productivity.” And “art as a form of communication.”[3] Here Buchmann is suggesting that Conceptual Art is defined by the symbolic communication or the concept driving the work, rather than being an object focused art form. Although, similar to Cuauhtémoc Medina’s attempt to define Contemporary Art as a movement, the defining terms are arguable and ambiguous.
Medina’s notion that the term ‘Contemporary Art’ will eventually define a genre seems understandable when regarding the earlier movement of Modernism, which referred to modern art at the time. But I think Contemporary Art will always refer to the art world at present. Medina’s statement that contemporary art must “demand a double reception”[4], a reception from the general public as well as a “sophisticated theoretical recuperation”[5], seems to contradict ‘Contemporary Art’ as a movement, the constantly changing nature of culture, which contemporary art responds to, ‘the general culture and sophisticated culture’, will enforce an ever changing definition of contemporary art and as a result, the term ‘Contemporary Art’ will continue to refer to art created in the present time.
[1] Cuauhtemoc Medina, “contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses”, e-flux journal, #2, 01/2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103, 17/2/2010. Page 2.
[2] Cuauhtemoc Medina, “contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses”, e-flux journal, #2, 01/2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103, 17/2/2010. Page 2.
[3] Sabeth Buchmann “Under the Sign of Labor”. Page 179
[4] Cuauhtemoc Medina, “contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses”, e-flux journal, #2, 01/2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103, 17/2/2010. Page 2.
[5] Cuauhtemoc Medina, “contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses”, e-flux journal, #2, 01/2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103, 17/2/2010. Page 2.
