Since 1990, half of the global art market consists of sales of contemporary art. Since then, prices of major works of contemporary art have risen by 300 percent. Anno 2018, there are worldwide 350 museums of contemporary art, of which 250 have been founded only since 1990. There are 2500 major collectors worldwide. There are many mega-gallerists and many new star-artists in USA, China, Russia, UK and Germany. Every week, major fairs and happenings of contemporary art are organized all over the world, which are attended by massive amounts of visitors. One could say: a new religion has come in to being : contemporary art. How to explain this new phenomenon ? Why this obsession with contemporary art? Who are the new players on the market? Why are they so numerous? Which is their influence? This conferences attempts to explain the reasons.

This talk offers a panorama of 10 important artists, coming from all regions of the world : Ai Wei Wei (China), Banksy (UK), Mona Hatoum (Lebanon), Julie Mehretu (USA-Ethiopia), Mark Bradford (USA), Peter Doig (UK), Wolfgang Tillmans (Germany), Marina Abramovic (Yugoslavia), Damien Hirst (UK) and Kimsooja (South-Korea).

One more attempt at neutralizing cynicism about today’s art