Professor Nikos Papastergiadis

The globalizing force of travel and communication technologies has catapulted artists into new networks, stimulated the exchange of ideas, and challenged the institutional boundaries of art.  In particular, I will relate the concept of aesthetic cosmopolitanism to five tendencies that are increasingly shaping the trajectories of contemporary art – denationationalization, reflexive hospitality, cultural translation, discursivity, and the global public sphere. These tendencies signal that while contemporary art operates in the context of globalization, it also adopts a specific mode of cosmopolitan critique.