Call for Papers, No. 37, September 2025

The Editorial Board of AM Journal of Art and Media Studies invites all potential contributors to send their papers for issue No. 37/September 2025 with the main theme The Marginalization of Art: A Permanent, Complex and Ongoing Process.

The guest editors for this issue are Dr Maja Stanković (Faculty of Media and Communications, Serbia) and Dr Jovan Čekić (Faculty of Media and Communications, Serbia).

The main research question of this issue is What is the position of art in the 21st century?

The contemporary moment of the first quarter of the 21st century is marked by a complex, not entirely visible, and permanent process of the marginalization of art. This process calls into question the privileged position of art, which has long been tied to its dominant function, the representation of power. Originating from the traditional system of art (representation of the power of the church, state), this function, in various modifications, also characterized the 20th century. The representation of political, ideological, imperial, or colonial power (e.g., Nazi art, socialist realism, capitalist realism, abstract expressionism) served the purpose of “aestheticizing politics” (Benjamin). During the Cold War, art was regarded as a “soft power” and was promoted, funded, and imposed by various power hubs. At the same time, the 20th century was marked by numerous avant-garde artistic practices, united in their critique of reducing art to the representation of power. It is from such critiques that the contemporary art paradigm of the 1960s emerged.

With the advent of the 21st century, globalization processes, and the divergence and conflict between digital and fossil capitalism, a shift occurs that may be linked to the marginalization of art. On the other hand, given that the prices of artworks in the art market have reached astronomical levels, one might arrive at the opposite conclusion: that there has never been more money (and power) in art than now. However, this seems more connected to capital, developing new financial derivatives, and monetization, rather than art itself. Supporting this notion is the fact that the position of artists increasingly aligns with the most socially vulnerable groups, particularly in economically underdeveloped environments where the art market has not been established.

In the present moment, power is becoming detached from politics, and thus no longer requires representation, as it is dislocated into the hybrid hubs of a networked world. The digital post-informational paradigm in which we live – where information and attention are equated with capital – normalizes marginalization processes, extending beyond art to encompass creative and critical thinking.

In light of these marginalization processes, several questions arise regarding the place of art in the complex, networked world of the 21st century:

• What changes in contemporary art can be observed today, in a moment of emerging multipolarity?
• Has the critical potential of art today been equated with activism in various social spheres, or is it entirely suspended, given that in recent decades art has been increasingly equated with entertainment, blockbuster art, commodification, and technological innovations, all of which contribute to the blurring and masking of its marginalization process?
• How are current changes – such as the intensification of the ecological crisis, the introduction of AI technologies, the effects of the Anthropocene, and other challenges related to questioning the concept of the human – connected to the process of marginalizing art in the 21st century?

Potential contributors are invited to submit their full-text proposals of 3,000–5,000 words, formatted according to the Journal's stylistic guidelines, by March 31, 2025, at the latest.

AM Journal is organized into four sections: Main Theme, Beyond the Main Theme, Artist Portfolio, and Book Reviews. Only the first section, which is also the central one, is predefined by the issue main theme.

Stylistic Guidelines can be found here.

All articles undergo double-blind peer review.

The issue is scheduled to be published in September 2025.

Please send your full-text queries (if any) by email to both the guest issue editors (maja.stankovic@fmk.edu.rs; jovan.cekic@fmk.edu.rs) and the Journal email address: amjournal@outlook.com.

Guest issue editors

Dr Maja Stanković and Dr Jovan Čekić