Conditions affecting the making and presentation of contemporary art have shifted dramatically in the twenty-one years since The Power Plant opened. The terms for public funding have changed at the same time that the market for contemporary art has mushroomed, as has the number of biennales, art fairs, private foundations, and museums. Over the last eighteen months we have promoted discussion on these changes, their effects on contemporary art at a grassroots level and—importantly—their implications for the future of The Power Plant.

 

This discussion provides a context for the birth of Switch and thereby the focus of the first issue. Our lead articles feature writers from Europe, Asia and Canada and allude to common ideological factors affecting contemporary art today, as well as local distinctions. Nina Möntmann’s ‘The Rise and Fall of New Institutionalism’ addresses the recent impact of neo-liberalism on Central European contemporary art institutions and discusses counter-projects that develop participatory institution-forming activities. Roger McDonald’s ‘Navigating Our Way Into the World’ looks at the impact of increased privatization and reduced public funding for contemporary art institutions in Japan, and new non-linear, audience-centred approaches to curating, such as the ‘Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial.’ In ‘Wary Partners/Fellow Wayfarers: Artists and Institutions,’ Peggy Gale relates globalization in the art world and the rise of cultural tourism to the parallel world of artist-initiated activity in Canada. In a small way, this grouping of articles foregrounds the potential of contemporary art initiatives within diverse localities, characterized as much by difference as by sameness.