The Conundrum of Medium Specificity: How can the Engagement with a Postmodern Juxtaposition of Media also Promote Medium Specificity?

As one of modernism's pillars, Medium specificity has been considered outdated by postmodern involvements with the notion of multiplicity, the death of the author and the promotion of installation art as a means to define place. Drawing from the author's practice-based research into the juxtaposition of painting, photography and video, the paper argues that medium specificity has not lost its relevance, but needs to be addressed within a postmodern context of media juxtaposition. It will refer to historical and contemporary theoretical positions by Michael Fried, Rosalind Krauss and Darmuid Costello in order to reflect on the conceptual and visual potential of the paradigm of the fine art medium. Galvano della Volpe's reflection on semantic difference will contribute to the discussion of translatability between media. By engaging with a detailed analysis of examples of exhibition installations that apply the juxtaposition of diverse pictorial categories, the semantic dimension of each individual medium will be explored in view of its contribution to a differentiated appreciation of the time-space relation.