On contemporary reconfigurations of art system(s)

Abstract

Seeking to complexify the concept of art system in the contemporaneity, this article presents some of its main features and operating mechanisms in the last decades. For this and starting from the three elementary spheres of legitimation, the production-distribution-consumption tripod, actors and situations were added to account for the current reality, such as the role of the curator or the art fair. In this sense, I point out how the notion of network and the understanding of the typical flows of the globalized scenario reconfigure the structure of the system and affect the existing power relations. Keeping in mind geopolitical issues and the specificities of the different landscapes, I present the idea of the plurality of art systems, reinforced by the analogy with the ecosystem concept, to compose an updated conceptual modeling of what the term art system encompasses today.