The Politics of Critical Persuasion in Relational Aesthetics

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The term relational aesthetics refers to contemporary art production that links together actors in an art event. The product of a relational aesthetics art event is intended to produce relationships of interconnectivity among its actors. This interpretation of contemporary art personalizes interactions between viewers and artworks, even though it has been criticized for duplicating current economic practices rather than making sites for new types of relationships. First utilized by Nicolas Bourriaud in the mid-1990s, the term has become associated with the gallery Le Palais de Tokyo—which Bourriaud co-founded—and a network of artists shown there and abroad, including: Liam Gillick, Rikrit Tirvanija, Andrea Zittel, and Pierre Huyghe.

One article specifically critical of relational art practices, “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics,” was written by Claire Bishop, a professor of Art History and Curatorial Studies and contemporary art critic. The model of antagonism she bases her critique of relational aesthetics upon is the term modeled by Chantal Mouffe. Bishop’s rhetorical use of Mouffe’s term attempts to persuade an art world audience of the meaninglessness of relational art. I will begin with Bishop’s discussion of relational art in terms of Mouffe’s antagonism and will then turn to how her discussion compares to Bourriaud’s writing on the subject of relational art. From these two comparisons, the rhetorical dimension of how Bishop makes an argument based upon a word that is not her own can be seen to be persuasive or not, and also how her rhetoric develops a prescriptive argument on the subject of modernism and art criticism.

Stream: Arts Theory and Criticism

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Corinna Kirsch began her undergraduate career as an English major, but decided that words could not fully describe systems of thought through literature. In order to remedy this problem, she also majored in Art History, in order to research visual components in creative processes. After graduation, she worked for galleries and publications in Austin, TX. Now a student at The School of the Art Institute, she is on the path to gaining a dual Master’s degree in Arts Administration and Policy and Art History, Theory, and Criticism. Her current interests include the role of the writing for art critics and curators, the current trends of the art market, and of course, art.