reading2

Medina, Cuauhtémoc. “Contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses.” E-flux journal: issue #12, January 2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103.


Cuauhtémoc Medina is a Mexican art historian, critic and curator. He holds a PhD in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex, UK and now works as a researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas at the National University of Mexico.

In the text, Medina posits eleven theses in regard to ‘contemporary art.’ He says that the word ‘after’ is emphasized in signifying ‘contemporary art’ as a movement that comes to mark the death of ‘modern.’[1] Then he goes on to explain that contemporary art is to ‘demand a double reception’; as part of general culture and as an attempt at sophisticated theoretical recuperation.[2] Where the movements of the past have been a kind of theory or a concept ‘contemporary art’ seems to belong in a culture. A dictionary defines the meaning of the word ‘culture’ as ‘a collection of ideas and symbols that is generally distinguished in the discipline from social structure’[3] Further on in the text, he says that art has been set up by the modern capitalist society, financed by that social elites and maintained by the academic industry.[4] Questions were raised for me as I read this point. Do I belong in this category because I live at present which instantly place me in the era of contemporary? Do I consider my work as contemporary because I am part of this culture?

There seems to be no exception in escaping the cover when Medina insists that fine art now is somewhere between ‘elite entertainment’ and ‘mass culture.’ He also said that ‘the hunger to be part of the global art calendar has more to do with the hope of keeping up with the frenzy of time than with any actual aesthetic pursuit or interest.’[5] I think the sentence was too much generalized. There are still a lot of people pursuing their own ways of creating a look, for example, photographers who use alternative processes in their practice. However, the unknown force of the culture which set a standard of what is in the main stream and what is not. I agree with what Dieter Roelstraete, a German curator, had to say in his essay ‘What is Not Contemporary Art?’ – ‘We must stand up against the gradual encroachment of this generalized culture upon the domain of art.’[6]



[1] Medina, Cuauhtémoc. “Contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses.” E-flux journal: issue #12, January 2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103

[2] Medina, Cuauhtémoc. “Contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses.” E-flux journal: issue #12, January 2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103

[3] "culture" A Dictionary of Sociology. John Scott and Gordon Marshall. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Auckland University. 21 June 2010 , accessed from http://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t88.e484

[4] Medina, Cuauhtémoc. “Contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses.” E-flux journal: issue #12, January 2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103

[5] Medina, Cuauhtémoc. “Contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses.” E-flux journal: issue #12, January 2010, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/103

[6] Roelstraete, Dieter. “What is Not Contemporary Art?” E-flux journal: issue #11, December 2009, accessed from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/106