‘Altermodern’ is a new term, coined by Nicolas Bourriad, to describe a discernible, insistent sensibility that has emerged in contemporary art in Britain, in tandem with recent social and cultural change across the world.

Bourriad, as curator, took two elements as the basis for developing the triennal – the idea of the archipelago and the writings of W. G. Sebald. Desiring to place contemporary art practice within the framework of modernism, but beyond the label of postmodernism, he looks at the artists as cultural nomads, loosely connected, but not necessarily co-joined. They include Franz Ackerman, Darren Almond, Simon Starling, Spartacus Chetwynd, Tacita Dean, Bob & Roberta Smith, Gustav Metzger & Carsten Holler. A very interesting essay by Bourriad, introduces the artists’ work.