This symposium is, in part, the result of an ongoing conversation about these border-drawing practices and their historical and contemporary articulations. During a series of meetings, we (Mikkel Bolt, Frida Sandström, Fredrik Svensk and James Day) have discussed the expanded function of art criticism within the current global political conjuncture, informed by an æsthetic-historical perspective. How are we to understand the relation of art criticism to a collapsing, yet dominant epistemology? What is the role of art criticism in maintaining and overthrowing the relations of power and desire that dominate the world today?