Charles Esche on Art's Role in Europe's Paradigm Shift and Institutional Transformation

Charles Esche, director of the Van Abbemuseum since 2004, discusses Europe's ongoing paradigmatic transition, which he sees as a generational shift from the collapse of socialism in the East to the decline of neoliberal capital in the West. He argues that Europe is no longer the dominant continent, with its economic decline and the decay of the European Union's modernist vision reshaping conditions. Esche highlights a 'demodernisation' in art, linked to decolonial thinking and indigenous perspectives, moving away from white supremacy and avant-garde traditions. He references his 2008 exhibition Be(com)ing Dutch, which addressed Dutch identity and influenced artists like Jonas Staal and Yael Bartana, setting a new political tone in Dutch museums. Esche also details the Museum of Arte Útil project with Tania Bruguera, which led to a nomadic Office of Arte Útil and a 2016 publication, 'What's the Use?', impacting the museum's collection displays. He critiques art history for isolating art from social contexts, advocating for exhibition histories that emphasize art's public emergence and curatorial education's balance of theory and practice. Esche notes collaborations with artists like Li Mu, who curated his Chinese village with Van Abbemuseum copies, and plans to repeat the Be(com)ing Dutch caucus in 2017.