CULTURAL NOMADISM AS A DEFENSE OF HETEROGENEITY

Text topic: Globalization and Intermediality

Text author: Зорица Чолић

One of the important issues addressed in post-colonial studies is the antagonism that exists between the cultures of colonizers and indigenous peoples, i.e. the antagonism that divides the “worlds” into the civilized and the savage, developed and backwards, sophisticated and primitive, rich and poor, and so on. Focusing on the post-colonial deconstruction of these binary oppositions imposed by Western culture, the text explores how such discourses have left the dominant structures untouchable, and have almost reified the otherness of “subordinates”. On the other hand, the text shows how cultural nomadism, which is not concerned with the origin but the destination and the becoming, potentially creates a new heterogeneous culture. Through nomadic strategies, stable and conventional cultural codes are modified and inserted into new contexts - assemblages, producing an alternative space and time, as well as a multiplicity of meanings within the closed circles. Furthermore, the essay explores how the post-colonial deconstruction can be applied to the visual arts of the last few decades. In parallel to the new world division, destabilisation of the center, globalization and, finally, fragmentation of identity, changes have occurred in the visual arts as well, in terms of some new artwork organization and production models. With the specific way of functioning, nomadic artists give a new paradigm for alternative culture that respects cultural diversity without hegemonies, superiors and subordinates.