The debate considers the role of mimesis in modern art, which rejects the traditional
forms of artistic imitation and focuses on the definition of the minimum
difference or de-realization of the model, ideal and truth (simulation,
repetition) in its development of differentiated thinking. Badiou describes the
»differentiating desire« of modern art, which attempts to »invent content at
the point of minimum difference, where there is almost nothing« and investigates
the real as the small elusive link, the barely perceptible hue of the conceived
and perceived. Duchamp’s idea of infrathin differentiation is reflected
in the conception of the ready-made and the new forms of reproduction and
projection. Hyper-realism conceives the least difference in the greatest similarity
between the painting and the photograph after which it was produced.
Seriality and repetition are the basic procedures of abstract and minimalist
art that are principally engaged with the conception of difference in articulating
similarities. Catherine Perret believes that modern art abolishes the primacy
of the object (result), and with the invention of new forms of repetition,
bets on the simple act and processuality as the key aspects of artistic content.
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