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METAMODERNITY

Group Exhibition

16 DECember 2018 – 9 FEBruary 2019
Robert Grunenberg’s new group exhibition, Metamodernity, circles around the cultural philosophy of Metamodernism and the utopian powers that are inherent to it.  The group show brings together artistic positions, that engage with a yearning for meaning through utopian speculations, an attitude with a new sincerity towards emotion and expression after the cynicism of the postmodern age. ARTIST: KOO JEONG A, PEPPI BOTTROP, MARCEL BROODTHAERS, ANDERS DICKSON, PAUL FERENS, HARDY HILL, ASTRIT ISMAILI, OLIVER LARIC, KRIS LEMSALU, JULIEN NGUYEN, FRANCIS PICABIA, SIMON SPEISER, RAPHAELA VOGEL

Group Exhibition:
Koo Jeong A, Peppi Bottrop, Marcel Broodthaers, Anders Dickson, Paul Ferens, Hardy Hill, Astrid Ismaili, Oliver Laric, Kris Lemsalu, Julien Nguyen, Francis Picabia, Simon Speiser, Raphaela Vogel
Metamodernity
Robert Grunenberg
16.12.2018 — 09.02.2019

Metamodernism describes the present era in which a yearning for utopias, despite their futile nature, has come to the fore. In the wake of the myriad global political, economic, and climatic crises of recent years, the term articulates our attempts to escape the dead-ends and cyclical thinking of postmodernism, in pursuit of the lost futures that modernity promised us. Through an embracing of radical empathy, sincerity, and tenderness, might we here begin—individually and collectively—to glimpse our progressive, humanist, sensual utopias? — Text By Luke Turner.


Metamodernism is a recent movement in philosophy that can be seen as a synthesis of modernism and postmodernism. It builds on the modernistic idea from the early 20th century, which beliefs in utopia and cultural progression. After World War II, postmodernism claimed that the modernistic idea failed, and it presented this cynical view of the world, where everything is relative. Metamodernism is a new proposal, that is conscious about the hope and sincerity of modernism, and yet reflects the irony and relativism of postmodern thought.

As Luke Turner put it about Metamodernism: “Whereas postmodernism was characterized by deconstruction, irony, pastiche, relativism, nihilism, and the rejection of grand narratives (to caricature it somewhat), the discourse surrounding metamodernism engages with the resurgence of sincerity, hope, romanticism, affect, and the potential for grand narratives and universal truths, whilst not forfeiting all that we’ve learned from postmodernism.”

For more information, please contact the gallery: mail@robertgrunenberg.com