"Duchampianska" praktiker inom samtidskonsten

Sammanfattning: This study investigates the extent to which subversive practices of conceptual art can be identified in contemporary works. It attempts to understand if, despite the widespread understanding of conceptual art as a mainstream in today's art scene, there may still be examples of contemporary practice that are as deviant and challenging to the notion of art today as those that came at the forefront of the conceptual art movement.       The standard historical definition of 'conceptual art' generally refers to the artistic movement taking place between 1966 and 1972. The aim of this study, however, is to give an account of its development both prior to and beyond that narrow temporal window, seeking to identify both the roots and the legacy of the philosophical aspects of conceptual practice.       The study traces these roots to the actions of Duchamp, who shifted the focus from aesthetics to a more cognitive valuation of art, by designating an everyday object as an artwork; an action that paved the way for the notion that, rather than being skilled craftsmen, artists are the authors of meaning, and artworks are the creation and transmission of ideas.       This ‘Duchampian’ approach which pushes and explores the boundaries of art within the framework of the artwork themselves has also influenced the selection of works for analysis. Like most other contemporary artworks, Michael Mandiberg's After Sherrie Levine and Banksy’s The Walled off Hotel, are considered conceptual in the sense that they work to transmit ideas to the viewer, but yet, like Duchamp’s ready-mades a hundred years earlier, they sit beyond commonly accepted understandings of the formal boundaries of the artwork, thus risking not being perceived as artworks at all. For that reason, these works potentially constitute radical practices that could be understood as questioning the limits of art making today.       From a theoretical point of view the study engages in hermeneutics and constructivism in order to construct an analysis of these two artworks relating their websites as well as artists’ intentions to the philosophical notions of conceptual art. The results show that the After Sherrie Levine is a critique of Levine's aura as well as of the art institutions. It also proposes that artistic appropriation as an art form can have an instrumental value in exploring the limits of art making. It further shows that it is possible to create art that is neither exclusive nor mysterious. The analysis of The Walled off Hotel shows that while operating as a local company with an ambition to lead the creative resistance movement in the West Bank through art, the hotel also constitutes a political satire with real effects in the area. The thesis proposes that this work is deviant and ‘organic’ in the way it renegotiates both the role of the artist and the very notion of 'art' itself.        Thus both After Sherrie Levine and The Walled off Hotel can be regarded as rather ‘Duchampian’ practices today.