Doppelte Artikulation

Contemporary art in context

The main title of this second volume of Writings on Contemporary Art is borrowed from Claude Lévi-Strauss, whose thinking influenced a generation. Inspired by Marcel Proust, Lévi-Strauss wrote about the processes of producing painting, music, literature, calling the technique described by Proust "double articulation."

This volume focuses primarily on works of art in which the "first-order units" are themselves artistic works that are cited, recombined, and reworked. The concepts of "primary objects" and of "double articulation" deepen our understanding of the disruption of sequences and the disturbance of cultural traditions.

The works of art discussed in this book inscribe themselves in a context of transmission that is modified and renewed for experience in the present.