The time we live in is, in the same breath, the time of the great ending, beginning, and turning point, i.e., the ending of the so-called grand stories (grand récits), the beginning of the very promising information age, and the radical turning point in the (self-)comprehension of the postmodern subject. The consequence of the ending is the cohabitation of varieties of existence, but also the loss of institutions that enthrone the ideals, name the sources of authority and form the dimension of continuity and meaning. The beginning opens the door to new information realities, while, at the same time, "derealizing" reality under our feet. The turning point in the comprehension of the subject admits and respects the human desire for power, while, at the same time, shattering every illusion of human autonomy, sovereignty, and self-possession. On the one hand there is de(con)struction of the meaning, one the other of reality, on the third of the subject. This raises the question of the role of art in the described vector shifts in the coordinate system of the postmodern world, particularly of visual and literary arts, which in the past - in national and international respect - emphatically constituted the symbolic and "metabolic" infrastructure of the most vital cultural transformations.
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