ICN is a research project connecting artistic practices and discourses that challenge established notions of identity and subjectivity.
In the past few decades, the concept of identity has been marked as a fixed political determination. Given the term’s inherent fluidity, diversity, multiplicity, and ambiguity, attempts to narrowly define it have proven restrictive, stretching its boundaries and, ultimately, causing them to burst. Practices aimed at making marginalized groups visible in the art world have often led to their compartmentalization or tokenization, deepening polarization and provoking culture wars within art institutions.
Identity Crisis Network seeks to explore whether it is possible to move beyond established identity categories and simplified labels, both in cultural and political discourse. We aim to engage with identity politics not through a one-sided critique but by examining its potential to generate change within the realm of art.
Through this project, we reflect on the philosophical, institutional, aesthetic, and political landscape we inhabit as artists, curators, and theorists – with the goal of envisioning new spaces where potential and contingent outcomes can emerge.
By opening spaces for dialogue – through seminars, conferences, and other exchanges – we ask:
How might we define identity? How can it be understood from various artistic, philosophical, or political perspectives?
What is identity politics today? How does it affect art institutions, and how can we build new institutions that are democratic and diverse?
How can we identify power dynamics within the art field, and what dominant discourses shape its relationships? How might these frameworks be transgressed, expanded, or dissolved?
In what ways can art engage with these issues? What is the future of politically and socially engaged art?
How can we move beyond biased categories when naming certain groups and identities in the art field, to avoid tokenization?
How might art, fiction, and speculation help us imagine new modes of being?
How do the internet and emerging technologies play into these questions?
To address these questions, we are bringing together thinkers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds, each engaging with the question of identity in different ways.
Organisational team
Luka Cvetković, Klara Petrović, Michalina Sablik, Vera Zalutskaya & Luja Šimunović
