In general usage the word recuperation means the return to normal health after illness, but in a sociological sense it refers specifically to the process by which radical ideas and subversive practices become neutralized and co-opted back into mainstream culture. The Situationist, Guy Debord used this term to describe the way in which bourgeois society actively feeds off the energy of dissent, repackaging the spectacle of counter-culture as a commodity for everyday consumption. The 'social body' quickly absorbs such troublesome activity, building up its resistance to cultural pathogens. Applying this analogy to the arts, philosopher, Gilles Deleuze asserted that "literature is an enterprise of health", describing his literary theory as 'clinical' as well as 'critical'. In a process of creative self-examination the artist reflects upon their own symptoms of pathology in relation to social convention, and through self-diagnosis, which is inherently bound up with an awareness of the distribution of power in society, seeks out new re-vitalizing forms of expression, and, thus, of cultural renewal. However, as soon as such reflexive inquiry becomes involved with the institutional structures of art, the focus must inevitably shift towards the more introspective questions of recuperation, and one's own implication in the processes of absorption and neutralization by the mainstream.
Curator and writer, Tom Trevor reflects upon the recent history of 'institutional critique' and the future of the self-critical art institution.
Tom Trevor is an independent curator and writer. Until November 2013 he was Director of Arnolfini (2005-13), the centre for contemporary arts in Bristol, UK, leaving after 8 years to focus on developing curatorial projects internationally. He was also Associate Curator of the Art Fund International (AFI) collection from 2007-12, in partnership with Bristol Museum. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in Art History & Visual Culture at the University of Exeter (UK), and is currently a member of the Advisory Committee of the Gwangju Biennale (Korea). Previously he was Director of Spacex (1999-2005), Exeter, and an independent curator (1994-99) in London, initiating projects for institutions including the Architectural Association, Camden Arts Centre, the Freud Museum and the Institute of International Visual Arts. Over the past 20 years he has curated more than 100 exhibitions internationally, placing a particular emphasis upon experimental, emerging practice and context-led projects.
His current curatorial projects include Black Sun at the Devi Art Foundation, Delhi (co-curated with Shezad Dawood) and Joelle Tuerlinckx at Arnolfini (co-curated with Axel Wieder, in collaboration with Wiels, Brussels, and Haus der Kunst, Munich) as well as projects in development in Asia and elsewhere. First UK solo exhibitions he has curated previously include Cosima von Bonin, Matti Braun, Angus Fairhurst, Jutta Koether and Lois Weinberger, amongst many others. Significant group shows include The Visible & the Invisible (1996), the Home Series (2000-04), Port City (2007), Far West (2008), Museum Show (2011) and Version Control (2013). Artists represented in the AFI collection include Ai Weiwei, Yto Barrada, Omer Fast, Meschac Gaba, Shilpa Gupta, Emily Jacir, Amar Kanwar, Tala Madani, Imran Qureshi, Walid Raad, Do Ho Suh, Haegue Yang and Akram Zaatari.