Radicant Rants

Nicholas Bourriaud “The Radicant”


The current state of globalism and globalization has been determined by the expansion of industrialization and modernism. The technologies and information systems created in the 20th century have given rise to the frequency and ease of migration and immigration. The ability to migrate physically and digitally is increasing at an exponential rate or was before the economic downturn.
The concept of globalism has created an environment where the radicants can emerge and take root, transplanting themselves from location to location.

On page 51 Bourriaud writes “The radicant develops in accord with its host soil. It conforms to the latter's twists and and turns and adapts to its surfaces and geological features. It translates itself into the the terms of the space in which it moves. With its at once dynamic and dialogical signification, the adjective “radicant” captures this contemporary subject, caught between the need for a connection with the environment and the forces of uprooting, between globalization and singularity, between identity and opening to the other. It defines the subject as an object of negotiation.”
This quote thus far has given me the clearest definition of a radicant.

Is globalization what Bourriaud believes it to be?
Is globalization a term coined by politicians and CEOs and CFOs to hide a resurgence of imperialism?
Where are the international non western art critics, the Bourriaud's of Asia, Africa, and South America?
By writing about the state of contemporary art and coining our era altermodern isn't Bourriaud setting or changing the course of affairs art is currently facing?