| Abstrakt: |
The alliances of the past few decades between art, science and social activism have recently been accompanied by a range of encounters between human and suprahuman agents, set up by concerned artists in the face of the ecological disasters happening on a planetary scale. Challenging received notions of art, such endeavours have re-activated avant-garde discussions about the relation between art and society and between symbol and function, and about whether the concept of the avant-garde has become obsolete. Approaching the practice of the Danish artist collective Superflex as a prism through which to engage with these questions, this essay examines a number of cases, including projects from Superflex's Supercopy series, their public art works and their eco-critical projects. Guided by the question of the status of the art work as symbolic and/or functional, the status and authorship ascribed to the artist and, finally, the status of qualities such as autonomy and non-hegemonic discourses, associated with the modern system of the arts, the essay argues that, rather than abandoning the paradoxes of the avant-gardes, Superflex's practice reaffirms their lasting relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
