Provincialism is a state of mind.  The notion of provincialism implies both a physical location and an intellectual simplicity of the individual, place or object of which it is being referred.  Further examination of these two common qualities of provincialism proves that the two conditions exist independently.  Nowadays, being located in the periphery instead of the center does not limit knowledge or exposure due to high speed forms of accessible communication such as the interweb, telecommunications and commercial media in general.  It is the second part, the intellectual simplicity that raises concern.  Culture is not produced in a vacuum; rather it is an outcome of a collective consciousness.  The contemporary moment presents many realities – all of them valid – that affect each other one way or another, regardless of location.

Cultural critic Fredric Jameson coined the term cognitive mapping, to describe the postmodern cultural aesthetic that is based on the comprehension of space (location) and time (history) for the individual to achieve a sense of place (emotional presence) once separated or alienated from “the city”, or the urban center.  His language of cartographies dominated art theory in the 1990s to address issues of ethnic (geographic) identity in contemporary art. Here, Jameson’s term is revived to suggest a straightforward equation for how art and culture produced in cities, towns, and villages all over the world, regardless of population size and wealth, are producing exciting and important work that contextualize the contemporary moment independent from artwork being produced in the metropolitan machine.  Authentic and personal artistic languages are being developed and nurtured via a location, which has a specific history, tradition and aesthetic.

The topic of geography’s influence on contemporary art is circulating through discussions of cultural production, as seen recently in the New Museum’s panel discussion Location, Location, Location, Is Provincialism a Bad Word?, which took place in New York on January 10, 2007.  I propose that the June 2nd dialogue held at the Reykjavik Academy not only go beyond the negative connotations of the word “provincialism”, but build on Jameson’s theory of cartographies by sharing resources, networks and ideas that arise during this session to make provincialism a extraordinary tool to be used in a variety of ways (also to be discussed).

The call to think local, not global might sound backward, but it can be said that now we are post-global.  Perhaps it’s time for us to live local and travel virtually to visit each other via live feed on the interweb, while we focus on the experiences, ideas and independent modes of production generated by our immediate community to stimulate contemporary art and culture.

Allison Peters
Director of Exhibitions, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA

*Participation in this program has been partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.