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- Title
The Postcolonial Constellation: Contemporary Art in a State of Permanent Transition.
- Authors
Enwezor, Okwui
- Abstract
This article talks about postcolonial contemporary art in Africa. There are no vantage points from which to observe any culture since the very processes of globalization have effectively abolished the temporal and spatial distance that previously separated cultures. Contemporary art today is refracted, not just from the specific site of culture and history but in a more critical sense, from the standpoint of a complex geopolitical configuration that defines all systems of production and relations of exchange as a consequence of globalization after imperialism. Current artistic context is constellated around the norms of the postcolonial with a specific cosmopolitan accent. The current history of modern art sits at the intersection between imperial and postcolonial discourses. Therefore, on one hand, the study of modern or contemporary art necessarily refers us to the foundational base of modern art history and its roots in imperial discourse, and on the other hand, the pressures that postcolonial discourse exerts on its narratives today. In conclusion, the postcolonial constellation is an understanding of a particular historical order that configures the relationship between political, social, and cultural realities, artistic spaces and epistemological histories not in contest but always in continuous redefinitions.
- Subjects
AFRICA; 21ST century art; POSTCOLONIALISM &; the arts; ART &; globalization; AFRICAN arts
- Publication
Research in African Literatures, 2003, Vol 34, Issue 4, p57
- ISSN
0034-5210
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.2979/RAL.2003.34.4.57