„Let’s dance like we used to...“. A critical intervention on a new trend of Appropriationism

In: Kunstchronik, 69 (2016), Nr. 4. pp. 201-204

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Translation of abstract (English)

The following ideas are based on the public response to several lectures on Ulises Carrión (1941–1989) and his concept of plagiarism, which I gave in various European institutions on occasion of my contribution to a retrospective of the artist at the Reina Sofia Museum in 2016. They reflect the recent trend of artistic recycling, which I call Appropriationism. The term includes every regressive manner of appropriating by refering, honoring, responding, quoting, alluding, remixing, postproducing and recycling past concepts, forms and names that conveys a general feeling of nostalgic indulgence, but avoids reflecting on cultural and social horizons of today. My twenty theses do not correspond to a factual and objective debate; rather, they consciously formulate a concise and provocative, but well differentiated polemic against a particular misunderstanding of what was formerly a very interesting artistic strategy.