The Arrival, the Assimilation and the Departure of Postmodernism in Flanders. A discussion with Ortwin de Graef, Johan Thielemans, Frank Vande Veire and Bart Verschaffel. Moderated by Koen Brams & Dirk Pültau

This panel discussion brings together four ‘participants’ in (and/or observators of) the debate on postmodernism in Flanders during the 1980s (and thereafter). They discuss the arrival, the meaning and importance, as well as the end of postmodernism in Flanders and abroad. The discussion ends with a diagnosis of the position of the intellectual in contemporary mediatized society.

Postmodernism – Cultural history – Flanders

Eddy Bettens – William Gaddis, The Recognitions.

This short essay treats the postmodern aspects of William Gaddis’s novel The Recognitions.

William Gaddis – literature – postmodernism

Sven Vitse – Ihab Hassan

This contribution reflects on the impact of the book The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern Literature (1971), written by the American literary theorist Ihab Hassan, on the discourses labelled ‘postmodernism’.

Ihab Hassan – literary criticism and history – postmodernism

Klaas Tindemans – Bertolt Brecht’s rejected heritage, or: postmodern theatre in Flanders, a mistake

This essay discusses the ‘postmodern’ generation of the 1980s in Flemish theatre, considering Jan Decorte, Jan Fabre and Needcompany, among others. Tindemans investigates the validity of the critique levelled at these theatre-makers of being ‘apolitical’. He does so by subjecting them to the test of Fredric Jameson’s theories on the relation between postmodernist culture and late capitalist society. Tindemans ends by stressing the importance of these Flemish theatre-makers’ complex relation to Bertolt Brecht’s views on emancipatory theatre practice.

Theatre history – Fredric Jameson – Bertolt Brecht

Christophe Van Gerrewey – Architectural Imagination between 1975 and 1980

This contribution describes the paradigm shift between modernism and postmodernism in architecture as it unfolded between 1975 and 1980. It starts from a lecture delivered by Charles Jencks to a seminar entitled Architecture – Inner Town – Government, which took place 2-5 June 1975 at the Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven (now the Technical University of Eindhoven). It ends with the first Venice Architecture Biennale in 1980, and more particularly with the Strada Novissima, a fictional street with contributions executed in timber by 20 international architects. Van Gerrewey thus traces an evolution from a point where the ‘crisis of modern architecture’ is discussed in relation to reality, to a point where solutions are proposed within the realm of fiction, turning architecture into a simulacrum.

Charles Jencks – architectural criticism – postmodernism

Christophe Van Gerrewey – A Plan Written in the Stars. Conversation with Geert Bekaert on Postmodernism in Architecture

As a sequel to the preceding contribution this interview discusses the position of Belgian architecture critic Geert Bekaert within the debate on architectural postmodernism. It starts in 1962 (when Bekaert first used the term ‘postmodernism’) and continues until the present, one of the ‘chapters’ in the conversation being Geert Bekaert’s position in the aforementioned seminar at the Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven, where Bekaert likewise spoke.

Geert Bekaert – architectural criticism – postmodernism

The Arrival, the Assimilation and the Departure of Postmodernism in the Netherlands. A discussion with Jeroen Boomgaard, Ger Groot, Arjen Mulder and Frank Reijnders. Moderated by Koen Brams & Dirk Pültau

This panel discussion brings together four ‘participants’ in (and/or observators of) the debate on postmodernism in the Netherlands during the 1980s. They discuss the arrival, the meaning and importance, as well as the end of postmodernism in the Netherlands. An important chapter discusses the book Van het postmodernisme published in 1985 by Jeroen Boomgaard (one of the panellists) and Sebastián Lopéz. The conversation ends with a discussion of the end or continuation of postmodernism, and the arrival of new paradigms.

Postmodernism – Cultural history – The Netherlands

Herman Parret – Lyotard’s Postmodernism / Lyotard, the Netherlands and Flanders 

Parret’s short essay describes the genesis of Lyotard’s discourse on postmodernism as it appears in his two ‘postmodernist’ books, The Postmodern Condition (1979) and The Postmodern Explained (1986). In a short annex the author describes the content of four lectures held by Lyotard in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Jean-François Lyotard – Postmodernism

Gijs van Oenen – Habermas and postmodernism 

This short article focusses on the controversy between German sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas and the ‘postmodernists’, with particular reference to the French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard.

Jürgen Habermas – Jean-François Lyotard – postmodernism

Ed Taverne – The more copies are circulating, the greater the desire for the original. Frans Haks as a practicing art historian 

This concise article deals with one particular question: why did Frans Haks, director of the Groninger Museum between 1978 and 1995, never use the term postmodernism, even though he was considered the supreme example of a ‘postmodernist’ curator and museum director?

Frans Haks (1938-2006) – Groninger Museum – Alessandro Mendini

Rogier Schumacher – ‘When you make it explicit, the value has gone’. Conversation with Paul Groot on the postmodernist discours in the magazine Museumjournaal

This interview with Paul Groot, former editor-in-chief (1980-1989) of the Dutch art magazine Museumjournaal, discusses the way various discourses labelled as ‘postmodern’ influenced his policy.

Museumjournaal – Paul Groot – postmodernism – Jean Baudrillard

Stefaan Vervoort – Glenn Adamson & Jane Pavitt (red.), Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990. On the book accompanying the postmodernism exhibition in the Victoria & Albert Museum (London)

Vervoort reviews the book published on the occasion of the exhibition Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990 recently held in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The author criticizes the catalogue for its lack of precision in dealing with notions like ‘style’, while at the same time appreciating the book’s more refined attitude towards the notion of postmodernism itself.

Victoria & Albert Museum – Postmodernism

Paul De Vylder – Madness comes from the Gods. A genealogy of the posthistorical art work

This extensive essay can be read as a genealogy of the prefix ‘post-’ as used in such terms as ‘postmodernism’ or the ‘posthistorical condition’. The author traverses the history of art and religion, starting from Lascaux on Greek philosophy, Jewish and Christian traditions, Immanuel Kant, to Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Nietzsche, two thinkers that initiated the criticism or deconstruction of western metaphysical thinking.

Posthistorical condition – postmodernism – western philosophy