Nicolas Bourriaud's Altermodern Triennial at Tate Britain

The Altermodern Triennial at Tate Britain (February 3 – April 26, 2009) was curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, who reimagined the event traditionally focused on British artists. The exhibition featured artists he calls "radicants" (not radicals), emphasizing a new direction for 21st-century art beyond postmodernism. Bourriaud argues that postmodernism emerged after the 1973 oil crisis, leading to a disconnection from geography and a focus on origins. The triennial proposes "altermodernity" as a way out of postmodern impasses, characterized by globalization, horizontalization, and the spatialization of time. Key concepts include the "form-trajectory" (parcours) as a mode of writing and visual matrix. The exhibition highlighted Gustav Metzger's "Liquid Crystal Environment," positioning him as a pioneer of ecological art since the 1960s. Bourriaud's book "Radicant" accompanies the triennial, distinguishing "radicant" from "radical" as an organism that grows roots as it moves, marking a break from postmodern origin-thinking. The triennial used London as a laboratory, classifying artists by birth, residence, or as "passers-by." It spanned a year with four prologues from April 26, 2008, to April 26, 2009. Bourriaud sees the exhibition as a dialogue with theory, not an illustration, where artists' works reflect the themes.