Praise for C urationism : "Balzer writes with zest scepticism and sly humour" Sheila Heti
author of Pure Colour What does it mean to call something "new"? Why is Western art and
culture even after postmodernism still so obsessed with the concept? What are the
consequences of relying on culture to bring about social change? In this provocative book
David Balzer argues that Western culture was never designed to produce truly new or original
artefacts. Rather we move from fixation to fixation trend to trend-a cycle of creation and
destruction with deep origins in Judeo-Christianity and the paganism that preceded it. The
culture industry promises its own form of change while preserving existing systems of power
exactly as they are. From the New Jerusalem to the New Left from Vannevar Bush to Kate Bush
This is Not New asks difficult questions about the role of culture not in making change but in
delaying-even preventing-it. David Balzer is a writer lawyer editor and educator. He is
the author of Contrivances and Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything
Else . His critical writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail the Guardian Artforum and
Frieze . He lives in Canada.
