Encounters Beyond the Gallery

Is it time to challenge the hegemony of Western aesthetics in the global arena of contemporary art? This book highlights the art world's repudiation of ethnic arts and argues for a pluralization of art languages. Renate Dohmen radically probes the question of whether 'Relational Aesthetics' (as articulated by the French critic Nicolas Bourriaud) can provide the conceptual tools needed to constructively address prevailing distinctions between art and those indigenous visual practices formerly called primitive art. Taking an experimental approach, Dohmen brings together the work of Rirkrit Tiravanija, the art of Tamil women, the Shipibo-Conibo of Eastern Peru and the fictitious artist Rikki T - staging the central debates within the book as performative encounters and conversations.