The New Administration Of Aesthetics

The New Administration of Aesthetics is a continuationof the different contributions presented at the conference with thesame name held in Oslo in April 2006.

The questions posed at the conference originate from the last few yearsof observations and discussions concerning the changes in the artinstitution, and how this affects those involved. New institutionalmodels and organisational methods seem to have the effect ofpolarisation rather than coherence. The ‘art institution’ understood insingular as an assemblage of the artists, curators, art critics,theoreticians, historians and their related museums, galleries andeducational institutions, seems no longer to offer an adequate groundfor analysis, and is already being replaced by other forms of alliances.

Currently, pragmatic, short- or long-term identifications take place inthe art scene contrary to old oppositions, something which demands achange in conceptual framework and hermeneutic horizons. Are wewitnessing an organisational transition, an attempt to avoid anincreasing focus on the advantages of large-scale operation andcorporate management?  Do the new forms of alliances signify apre-modern de-differentiation, where the artist is her own curator, andwhere the critic writes on demand from the gallery, undermining thepossible function of art as a critical corrective? Or is it rather aquestion of softening a system of restrictions, a critique of limitingdefinitions concealing unfortunate structures?

Contributors: Trude Iversen, Gerald Raunig, Stian Grøgaard, ToneHansen, Adriana Kuiper, Carey Young, Craig Buckley, Brian Holmes inconversation with 16 Beaver Group, Alex Farquharson in conversation with Maria Lind.

About the editors: Iversen is a PhD candidate in Aesthetics at theUniversity of Oslo with the project: Art as Critique, with specialattention on Institutional Critique. Hansen is a research fellow at theAcademy of Fine Art in Oslo with the project Megamonstermuseum.