Our contemporary lives in the midst of visual media mean that everyone and everything wants to be visible. Success means visibility and visibility means success. This ‘regime’ also governs all forms of cultural production, ‘high’ as well as ‘low’. Camiel van Winkel seeks out examples in this book, such as the sculpture terrace in Rotterdam, the Netherlands Architecture Institute’s national architecture plaque and the behaviour of politicians on the campaign trail, but also film posters, reality soaps and the film The Matrix.
The author argues that the continously expanding visual culture makes it necessary to reconsider the relationship between art and mass culture, between forms of autonomous and applied art.
The Regime of Visibility is a critical book that examines and interprets the various interfaces between visual art and other forms of culture – high and low – in an original manner. It could be seen as a sequel to Camiel van Winkel’s first book, Moderne leegte. Over kunst en openbaarheid (‘The Modern Void. On Art and the Public Condition’), which was published in 1999 to wide critical acclaim.
