Reflections on Berlin Art Week 2022

I'm writing this week from Mitte in Berlin. It's art week and all the biggest events of the year (outside of Basel) are opening right now in Europe. There's a noticeable trend among the artists and themes present in this year's program that has got me thinking about creative generations and the impact of social media platforms over the last decade. First, let's take a look at some of the exhibitions opening this week:

Oliver Laric, "Exoskeleton" at Tanya Leighton

Katja Novitskova, "Soft Approximations" at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler

Jon Rafman, "Egregores and Grimoires" at Schinkel Pavillon

Jon Rafman, "Counterfeit Poast" at Sprüth Magers

Rachel Rossin, "The Maw Of" at KW Institute for Contemporary Art

Anna Uddenberg, "Fake Estate" at Schinkel Pavillon

Lu Yang, "Doku: Experience Center" at Palais Populaire

+ Bunny Rogers unveiled a new 10 ft bronze cast neopets outdoor sculpture (comment below if there is anyone I forgot)

More than a few characters have said to me, in some variation: ‘Post-internet rode in during 2013. The art world has been waiting for some identifiable movement to replace it, but nothing turned up and so it's back!' lol

Surely there have been many talented artists in the past decade. But nothing quite so distinct as the peer group of "post-internet" whose overlapping interests, themes and theoretical references allowed the works of individual artists to be in dialogue with each other as a whole.

So what happened to the last decade of art? I think the answer is clear. In 2012 - 2022 social media platforms became the dominant means of publishing creative work. Costly barriers to entry for the institutional artworld deterred young talent that could find more immediate visibility (and compensation) on the platforms. As a result, the most gifted minds of the last decade have spent their young careers making hooks for Spotify algorithms, or clickbait for YouTube recommendations, and never entered into the proper Artworld like generations past.

Zooomer/Millennial cusp (or Zillennial) artists such as Greg "Jreg" Guevarra or Dorian Electra make multi-faceted, interdisciplinary work that meets the quality and complexity of the institutional artworld. But each of these young creatives first garnered visibility through platform distribution and not a gallery. This has been the experience of a whole generation. For everyone born after millennials, the misnomer of "contemporary art" no longer refers to something happening now, but instead gestures at a recent historical period. As a result, we find ourselves in a youthful creative drought and an upward drift in the age of exhibiting artists. This lack of opportunity for Zillennial creatives makes it seem as if nothing of cultural significance has happened in the last 10 years. The opposite is true.

Perhaps it’s important to remember that this was always the platforms’ agenda: to disintermediate, to remove gatekeepers and to liquidate institutional structures by opening them up to the competitive dyanamics of the attention economy. On the surface, disrupting the old structures sounds superficially compelling. But the success of this program has meant that we now find ourselves in an irreconcilable political crisis and a period of steep cultural decline. The should-be great novelists of a younger generation are instead toiling to produce 15 second TikToks that will be forgotten in a week's time. (If this is what it's done to art, just imagine what it's done to journalism!) For me, this fundamental shift in how we organize society's stories and information is the most significant cultural transformation of our time. We are only beginning to see the real effects now.

*extremely Dan Keller voice* Meanwhile, in Berlin… I'm meeting with our Channel co-founders New Models and Interdependence. We have some exciting news coming up for the end of September. Building new things is difficult but highly rewarding.

I have a few upcoming pod episodes with Jack Wagner from Yeah But Still and Carly & Julian from New Models + special guest Rachel Rossin. Keep an eye out for those on the public and private feeds in the next few days.

Wrapping up this text, we’re on the train back from Documenta 15, the massive quinquennial exhibition spread out over the city of Kassel, Germany. Its the largest exhibition in the world, over 2000 square meters of art and a 50 million (yes literally) tax payer budget. This year its subject to some fiercely divisive controversies. We will be back in the EU for a conference this November to discuss in detail.