What the avant-garde stands for today

Abstract

_{The main question of this article expresses doubts as to whether the end of the avant-garde was not in fact declared too early. Did we state too hastily that postmodernism has completely nullified the significance of the concept of the avant-garde? The resulting question that must be also asked is whether we need the avant-garde today. And if so, how do we use the methods and the theory of the avant-garde in the current context? This article assumes that the characteristics of the avant-garde continue to be recognized in contemporary art. In the beginning of my paper, I will summarize those characteristics as distinguished by Mieczysław Porębski, looking at them from the perspective of Nicolas Bourriaud's conception of relational aesthetics. Its emphasis on intersubjective relationships in their social environment and on the present moment, extends the ideas of the historical avant-garde. Here it meets the theory of encounters – icontrology. Among the historical avant-garde artists it is Marcel Duchamp who is indicated here in a pivotal role, especially with regard to his concept of the ready-made, which was extended by Joseph Kosuth. The concept of Documenta 14 was linked to the historiography of Frank Ankersmit, based on micronarrations that function as ready-mades. The exhibition of Documenta 14 is shown here as composed of such micro-histories and at the same time, organized around key narratives. Small narratives make up a grand narrative – the story of an open and tolerant United Europe which is against racism and xenophobia and invites the presence of migrants. This is the practical lesson that we draw today from the Holocaust. This is the grand European narrative told in Documenta 14.}