In Search of the Inverted Time of Avant-Garde. An Aattempt to Read the Phenomenon of Debora Vogel in Light of the Modern Crisis of Experience

Abstract

This article considers the principles of Debora Vogel’s artistic project in the context of reflecting on the transformations of the late modern experience. Among the transformations, the one I consider key is the shift from narrative linearity to polyphonic simultaneity which is related to the displacement of temporal aspects of modern experience by spatial ones. The second context in which I consider Vogel’s work are transformations which took place in art as a consequence of the avant-garde – its signature concepts including simultaneousness, poliphony, breakdown of hierarchy, lack of a centre, event, uprootedness, blurring of boundaries between art and life. I claim that the full significance of the above-mentioned transformations becomes visible in neoavant- garde art. Following in the tracks of neo-avant-garde art, I bring out the shifts which appear to be important from the perspective of a necessity to return to Vogel as its anticipator. The method I adopt assumes a particular understanding of anticipation, according to which the beginning (avant-garde) is co-created by its continuation b(neo-avant-garde).