In 2014 the famous actor Shia LaBeouf best known because of his lead role in Transformers

decided to create a performance where he had to pass 5 days locked in a room ubicated in an art
gallery in Los Angeles and invited people to interact with him face to face. Hundreds of peoples
were seen doing lines around the art gallery so they can go inside the room and join LaBeouf in
his sorrow, the people that had the opportunity to go inside said that you can see Shia sitting
down in a table, dressed up in a tuxedo, palms laid flat and a paper bag in his head which said
“I’m not famous anymore”. He would not speak or move except of his eyes that were red and
watery. According to Shia, despite all his genuine apologies through social media because of his
past bad behaviors and accusations of plagiarism, he felt that the only way for people to feel like
he is sorry was with the #IAMSORRY project. After reading Luke’s Turner metamodernist
manifesto they team up with Nastja Rönkkö to create the very first metamodernist artwork, the
#IAMSORRY project. But why that way? And what in the world is metamodernism? In this essay
I will talk about this new cultural, artistic and philosophical “antimovement” that has overcome
postmodernism. I will talk about the meaning of metamodernism and will discuss Turners artistic
work and conceptions in the context of modernity according to Harari and modernism and
postmodernism according to Hicks.

The reason why metamodernism has overcome postmodernism is that with the ecosystem falling
apart, the financial system is getting uncontrollable as we’ve seen in Grecia and recently in
Venezuela, or in our case with all the discussion about gender role, a lot of people are expressing
their “desire for change”. CEOs and politicians, architects, and artists alike are formulating a new
a narrative of longing structured by and conditioned on a belief (‘‘yes we can’’, ‘‘change we can
believe in’’) that was long repressed, for a possibility (a ‘‘better’’ future) that was long forgotten.
(Vermeulen & van den Akker, 2010).

Let’s start trying to understand what metamodernism is about, “metamodernism shall be defined
as the mercurial condition between and beyond irony and sincerity, naivety and knowingness,
relativism and truth, optimism and doubt, in pursuit of a plurality of disparate and elusive horizons.
We must go forth and oscillate!”. (Turner, metamodernism, 2011). As we know, postmodernism
was characterized by such things as deconstruction, irony, pastiche, nihilism, relativism and the
rejection of grand narratives to caricature it somewhat the discourse surrounding metal
modernism engages with what we see today as a tentative return of sincerity, home, affection,
romanticism and the possibility of grand narratives and universal truths. (Turner, metamodernism,
2015). In simple words, if modernism embody sincere values and postmodernism rejects them,
then metamodernism falls in between, a kind of sincerity that is communicated through an
insincere distancing, metamodernism can be critic with science but won’t denied its importance.
The perfect example is the #IAMSORRY project of Shia LaBeouf because as he wanted to
apologize, he delivered the apology so that the audience would hold it at a distance making it not
entirely sincere, but not entirely insincere. It was all the distance and irony of postmodernism with
all the sincerity of a classic narrative. Even if some people didn’t understand the meaning or the
porpoise of the project or they just called it weird, some did get it as they saw Shia as a person,
flesh and bones and soul and no more as an object, as a celebrity, they somehow felt that he was
sorry as some of them offer him their hands and Shia took them and started to cry. In one article
I’ve read about this project the writer shares a friend’s experience, he says in this article: “An hour
later, a friend texts me after his own encounter. He’d waited for a while in line behind a bunch of
tweeting assholes, and when the time came to enter, “I brought him a flower and put it on the
table and said, ‘I’m not like them.’” How did Shia respond? “He started crying.” (Buchanan, 2014).
So in the end we can see that the common response from visitors were humanity, empathy and
understanding but sadly we also can see the dark sides of human nature as some people took a
selfie with a crying man that couldn’t say no and also disobedient the rule of no photos just to post
it online so people can make fun of it or with the purpose to gain more followers which seems to
be a trend nowadays.

In the context of modernity according to Harari, we have traded meaning over power, we are no
longer in this world as part of a great cosmic plan instead we are here because of a succession
of biochemical accidents in a blind universe. We assume that our existence is meaningless so:
The great political, artistic and religious project of modernity has been to find a meaning to life
that is not rooted in some great cosmic plan. (Harari, 2017). So, with metamodernism without
going to the extremes of modernism and postmodernism, it tries a balance for humans to relied
on specially when someone is experimenting an existential crisis, because of the contradictions
of postmodernism, can find a way of living and coexist just like Shia LaBeouf. Metamodern
philosophy enters the scene only once the Internet and the social media have become truly
dominant factors in people’s lives and when many of us no longer partake directly in the
production and distribution of industrial goods. It is a worldview which combines the modern faith
in progress with the postmodern critique. What you get then, is a view of reality in which people
are on a long, complex developmental journey towards greater complexity and existential depth.
The metamodern philosophy is a whole world of ideas and suppositions that are counter-intuitive
to modern and postmodern people alike. But since both the modern and postmodern philosophies
are increasingly outdated, these metamodern ideas are set to develop, take hold, and spread.
One day, they may become as dominant as the modern philosophy is today. (Freinacht, 2019)

To end this discussion about metamodernism I think it’s important specially for millennials to get
to know more about this philosophy, in this digital area, because it’s like a “romantic response to
crisis”, we could have better responses to the challenges the world in giving us.

In general, metamodernism is a new “antimovement” that has overcome postmodernism and that
is started to be talk in the art, cultural and philosophical community. More people are discussing
its meaning, if we all have embodied it or we just haven’t realized yet.

Bibliografía
Buchanan, K. (11 de Febrero de 2014). Vulture. Obtenido de https://www.vulture.com/2014/02/i-
stared-at-shia-labeouf-until-he-cried.html

Freinacht, H. (2019). Metamoderna. Obtenido de https://metamoderna.org/metamodernism

Harari, Y. (2017). Homo Deus. A brief History of Tomorrow. Lima: Penguin Random House Group Editorial
S. A. U.

Turner, L. (2011). metamodernism. Obtenido de http://www.metamodernism.org/

Turner, L. (12 de Enero de 2015). metamodernism. Obtenido de

https://www.metamodernism.com/2015/01/12/metamodernism-a-brief-introduction/

Vermeulen, T., & van den Akker, R. (2010). Notes on metamodernism. Aesthetics & Culture.

Lizeth Leon Dominguez