Globalisation-from-above and globalisation-from-below

Chapter 1 outlines how ‘globalisation’ and ‘migration’ have been articulated in Western discussions of contemporary art since the 1990s, and how the discourse on art and globalisation intersects with the discourse on art and migration. Migration is at the same time one of the causes and vehicles of globalisation, and one of its effects. Migration can thus be seen as an aspect of globalisation, also in terms of conceptualisation. The discourse analysis of this chapter is structured by Stuart Hall’s distinction between two vectors in the globalisation processes: globalisation-from-above and globalisation-from-below. Following Hall, I contend that the discourse on art and globalisation primarily revolves around issues concerning globalisation-from-above, whereas the discourse on art and migration mainly revolves around problematics related to globalisation-from-below. The critical discourse analysis in Chapter 1 complements the literature review’s mapping of the field and considers texts by key researches such as Hans Belting, Peter Weibel, James Elkins, Mieke Bal, Griselda Pollock, and from Third Text.