For a long period, the institutional complex of mainstream contemporary art has followed a consumerist trend captured by Kris Dercon’s statement “the museum as mass media”^[1]1Jennifer Higgie and Sam Thorne, “Interview: Chris Dercon,” Frieze (blog), 2012, https://www.frieze.com/article/interview-chris-dercon.. The politics of neoliberalism have pushed museums to adopt the models of rentability of enterprise and obey to the diktats of profitability, or at least of economic “rationality”^[2]2Andrew Dewdney, David Dibosa, and Victoria Walsh, Post Critical Museology: Theory and Practice in the Art Museum, 1st [ed.]. (London: Routledge, 2013).. In that, private foundations like Vuitton, Prada or Pinault became paradigmatic examples and more traditional museums followed suit. In parallel, under the influence of various activist movements from civil society, museums and art institutions were hard pressed to open their agenda to issues of climate change, gender discrimination or decolonization. Their existence was conditioned to balancing imperatives of economic rationality with progressive political demands. Sign of the time, we witnessed the consolidation of the radical chic alliance of activism and capital that continues today (ie. Lee Lozano^[3]3See https://www.pinaultcollection.com/en/boursedecommerce/lee-lozano or Mike Kelley ^[4]4See https://www.pinaultcollection.com/fr/boursedecommerce/mike-kelley in François Pinault’s newly refurbished old Paris stock market).

This fragile equilibrium is now threatened as political compositions tend to increasingly include the many variants of right wing populism from alt right to fascists or even monarchy nostalgics. As a case in point, after the political victory of the ultra-nationalist party Vox which combines conservatism a nauseous blend of racism, anti-feminism and nostalgia for the dictatorial regime of Franco, the directors of the two main art institutions of Valencia, IVAM the museum of modern art and the centre for contemporary culture CCCM gave their resignation under pressure^[5]5Carlos Garsán, “El IVAM y El Centre Del Carme Ante El Reto de Superar La ‘Tormenta,’” Valenciaplaza (blog), August 7, 2024, https://valenciaplaza.com/el-ivam-y-el-centre-del-carme-ante-el-reto-de-superar-la-tormenta.. In Poland, under the reign of the Law and Justice Party, the ministry of culture appointed political allies to the direction of the National Gallery of Art Zacheta and the Museum of Art in Łódź. Piotr Bernatowicz, the new director of the CCA Ujazdowski Castle, in Warsaw used the institution as a platform for alt-right artists^[6]6Kuba Szreder, “The Authoritarian Turn: On the Crisis of the Polish Institutions of Contemporary Art,” CIMAM (blog), June 3, 2023, https://cimam.org/news-archive/the-authoritarian-turn-on-the-crisis-of-the-polish-institutions-of-contemporary-art/.. If for a long time the explicit constraint from funders were economical and structural, now the contents of exhibitions and collections is under dispute as the glam sector is subjected to an assault of provocations, threats, political manoeuvres and court cases. Indeed the consequences of the perilous exercise of pleasing collectors and donors whilst decolonizing the collection offers the perfect fetish to the alt right that never tires to denounce the hypocrisy of the left and their secret alliance to the elite. Whilst museums are in a perfect trap, the institutions that sought to give structural room of manoeuvre to progressive projects, such as the recent documenta, are not in a better place. After the debacle of documenta 15, the selection committee for the next quinquennial resigned en masse invoking a climate of “emotional and intellectual climate of over-simplification of complex realities and its resulting restrictive limitations”^[7]7Alex Greenberger, “Documenta Selection Committee’s Remaining Members Resign En Masse as Controversy Mounts,” ARTnews (blog), 2023, https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/documenta-16-selection-committees-remaining-members-resign-1234687224/.. In short there is a sense in which existing alliances are being critically tested and are becoming untenable.

This admittedly cursory assessment calls for a re-evaluation of the alliances, strategies, circuits and networks which have sustained, made possible but also fragilized or even neutralized artistic practices as we know them. Especially at a time where urgent struggles such as the mobilization against the genocide of the Palestinian people is met with censorship and defunding ^[8]8CIMAM Museum Watch Committee, “Cancellation and Censorship in Times of War,” CIMAM (blog), accessed August 27, 2024, https://cimam.org/resources-publications/cancellation-and-censorship-in-times-of-war/.. In this condition of flammability (or incandescence), how can we better understand the logics of the assemblages in place and start speculating about alternatives? How can we understand the nuances and differences in these alliances? How are they differently affected? How resilient are they? What is the cost of their economical dependencies? How can we understand these assemblages in their complexity (eg. a museum may not offer a unified perspective on the same issue and ramify into different networks through its different departments: exhibition, education or public programme)? And the same for artists and collectives. How the notion of assemblage can help reframe and enrich the above diagnosis but also helps speculate and locate nascent forms.

This question is further complicated by the fact that assemblages are distributed and complex associations. The degree to which these assemblages are "in place" and to which degree they are produced or disclosed as such raise significant questions: their actants may be unaware of the assemblage they take part in or unaware of their reach and the alliances they imply. Further when actors engage in purposefully designing an assemblage, they are never fully in control as the assemblage is immanent to a series of relations that are not easy to plan, perceive and whose weight is difficult to ponder. Flammability as a condition raises the stakes of proposing a theoretical model and devising exploratory practices for their disclosure. (This speaks to composing one’s object of analysis, see Ordinary research and Composition).