Changing Art from the outside in

From the 1989 Magiciens de la Terre exhibition to the two latest editions of documenta and the Venice Biennale, the art world has become receptive to historically excluded creative practitioners, which has in turn generated some heated debate. While cultural circles over the past ten years have come to agree on the need to open up to a globalized, hyper-connected world, they are far from any consensus on how to go about it. Who deserves to be included? On what basis? Who does the selecting? Who remains left out? This manifesto outlines the decentralizing approach needed to open up the art world and its institutions to greater diversity. Drawing on her experience as a mediator for the Nouveaux Commanditaires (New Patrons), the author argues that to be more inclusive, we need to make greater allowance for other ways of relating to artifacts than that of aesthetic contemplation, the dominant mode in Western art institutions. The very concept of art itself needs to be revised, even if that means rocking its foundations.