Ark Audio

Here is the audio from our evening of conversation with art historian and cultural critic Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen to mark the release of his new collection of essays, "After the Great Refusal". "After the Great Refusal" offers a Western-Marxist reading of contemporary art focusing on the continued presence (or absence) of the avant-garde’s transgressive impulse. Taking art’s ability to contribute to a potential radical social transformation as its point of departure, Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen analyses the relationship between the current neoliberal hegemony and contemporary art, including relational aesthetics and interventionist art, new institutionalism and post-modern architecture. Mikkel Bolt Rassmusen is an art historian and cultural critic. He is Associate Professor at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, and is co-editor of the journals K&K and Mr. Antipyrine. He is the author of many books in Danish and two previous books in English: Playmates and Playboys at a Higher Le