Acronia: when nostalgia dissolves time in contemporary culture

Christian Caliandro argues that between 2005 and 2020, an 'Interregnum' exhausted the experimental drive of the late 1990s and early 2000s, intensifying postmodern nostalgia. This pervasive backward gaze creates 'acronia'—a condition where time dissolves, replaced by an oscillation between idealized past images. Acronia emerged after four or five consecutive generations cultivated a cultural gaze fixed on the past, making all artistic objects composites of yesterday's materials. The result is an authoritarian dominance of the past, where present creation is deemed inferior to models from the 1960s–1980s. The mid-1990s marked a turning point with the spread of internet thinking, leading to a decline in artistic movements and subcultures. Cultural experience became dematerialized and disconnected—music as pure digital sound, detached from physical support, packaging, or live events. While decades up to the 1990s retained distinct stylistic identities, from the 2000s onward everything blurred, compounded by 'nostalgia for nostalgia.' Time perception folds upon itself, flattening past and present into an indistinct pile. Caliandro teaches contemporary art history at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and serves on the scientific committee of Symbola Foundation.