In the Early 2000s, Miwon Kwon published One Place After Another, a critical history of site-specific art since the late 1960s. The text examines the complex relationship between location and identity / work and context, in opposition to political and economic changes. In short, Kwon made a commentary on how late-capitalism and globalization would alter site-specific art. Artists would need to travel to, in effect becoming global themselves.

In 2020, we can acknowledge that artists and their work is rarely regional. Exhibitions travel from city to city in order to bolster blockbuster shows with international appeal. Artists like Ai Weiwei, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, etc., now belong to the “Art World” more than a specific geographical location.

So, how will the globalization of art be impacted by increased travel restrictions, now extended to thirteen countries whose citizenry is largely unable to travel to the US? There are, of course, talented and influential artists that will no longer be able to appear at openings or foster the development of their work in American art institutions.

This is not the first time that travel has complicated international-artist-relations. Artists from US and Cuba previously found ways of working together by sending artworks or materials to be exhibited, even if the artists themselves were not able to travel.

A new and provocative solution has been created by American artist Jon Rubin and Iranian artist, Sohrab Kashani at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. The interactive work titled “The Other Apartment” features a replicated version of Kashani’s Iranian apartment in Pittsburgh. The artists are working from photos and videos to assist in their collaboration. Objects were scanned and 3-D printed for the apartment reproduction. This major project took fabricators over four months to create and install.

“The Other Apartment” is not only successful in terms of fabrication and concept but can serve as a model for future collaborations. While we might see a decade marked by less international mobility, artists will find creative ways to connect across border lines.

…Michelangelo transformed both the practice of art and our conception of the artist’s role in society.

-Miles J Unger

You can not teach art, it’s not to be taught, but felt and lived, or else it is naught.

-Sabina Nore

Landscape etching, by Altdorfer

View of the Danibe Valley, by Altdorfer