It’s Not Over (’Til It’s Over)

The essay argues against the widespread assumption that avant-garde art is something that is irretrievably lost to history, that the original fervor of avant-garde practice is impossible today. Instead of a history of decline, it proposes a history of repetition, according to which new avant-gardes make use of their predecessors without being trapped in the past. Two recent manifesto publications and the reuse of two historical avant-garde locations serve as examples of how artists respond to the challenge of creating avant-garde events today.