Something Altogether Weirder

A Meeting On Metamodernism with Timotheus Vermeulen

“Postmodernism is dead, but something altogether weirder has taken its place.”
Adrian Searle, art critic (2009)

In their 2008 milestone essay Notes on Metamodernism, Timotheus Vermeulen en Robin van den Akker first sought to describe their idea of metamodernism, fostered by the feeling that postmodern discourses lost their critical value when it came to understanding contemporary arts, culture, aesthetics and politics. In the midst of an ecological, economic and (geo)political crisis, they (and many others) claimed that History did not come to an end, but had been rebooted, kick-started and was forced into a different direction or shape. What was needed was “a new language to put into words this altogether weirder reality and its still stranger cultural landscape”.

Their attempt to map, translate and situate artistic responses and aesthetic innovations continued on a popular blog with numerous contributions by researchers, artists and curators, followed recently by the publication of a book: METAMODERNISM: HISTORICITY, AFFECT AND DEPTH, which they co-edited with Alison Gibbons. The book brings together many of the most influential voices in the scholarly and critical debate about post-postmodernism and twenty-first century aesthetics, arts and culture.

On May 31 WALTER warmly welcomes one of the editors of the book: Timotheus Vermeulen. In the intimate setting of WALTER books, Vermeulen will discuss the structure of feeling called metamodernism and how reconceptualizing notions of historicity, affect and depth allows us to make sense of what is happening in the areas of arts, culture, aesthetics, and politics.