New institutionalism is the buzzword of current European curatorial discourse. A term poached from social science, it classifies effectively a field of curatorial practice,institutional reform and critical debate concerned with the transformation of art institutions from within. New institutionalism is characterised by the rhetoric of the temporary - transient encounters, states of flux and open-endedness. It embraces a dominant strand of contemporary art practice -namely that which employs dialogue and participation to produce event or process-based works rather than objects for passive consumption.
‘Now, the term 'art' might be starting to describe that space in society for experimentation,questioning and discovery that religion, science and philosophy have occupied sporadically in former times.It has become an active space rather than one of passive observation.Therefore the institutions to foster it have to be part-community centre, part-laboratory and part-academy,with less need for the showroom.
