After the Great Refusal: Essays on Contemporary Art, Its Contradictions and Difficulties

by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen

The ruling class continued amassing wealth, while art exhibitions were turned into parties or discussions about postcolonialism and economic inequality. This forces us to ask whether or not playing a transformative game within the institution is still a viable option. What to do then? Although an exit from the institution looks increasingly desirable as the institution reveals its class character, it is perhaps not altogether wise, as we will need all available sources of criticality in the fight to come. But considering the ability to manage radical art and divert it in order to maintain social equilibrium—Marcuse’s affirmative character of art—it seems reasonable to say that only art sited at the very margin of the art system can help to build a passage beyond capitalism. In the coming insurrection, the safe interior of the art world will perhaps become too compromised.