When we talk about identity, we are referring to a complex set of
individual, relational, cultural, social, and even political experiences.

The five artists selected question these different concepts
of identity through photo and video works that often transcend
the two-dimensional frame of the image and require the viewer
to engage with the artwork on a personal level.

All of these artists, nominated for the Arendt Award, develop
a strong personal vision that goes beyond the usual classic clichés of identity.

Cihan Çakmak, with a more idiosyncratic approach, explores
the shared memories of a fractured Kurdish identity by creating
dreamlike personal situations that challenge social fragmenta-
tion and the resulting isolation experienced by the community.

Ulla Deventer’s particular aesthetics which draws both on documentary photography and contemporary art installation con-
siders her body as an instrument of power in order to deconstruct stereotypes about prostitution.

As to Karolina Wojtas, her deconstructed self-representations
and fragmentary perceptions of the body establish new narra-
tives that challenge the conventional notions of time and space
from a social and relational standpoint.

Different in style, Lívia Melzi’s work approach consists in examining archives and representations pertaining to identity through her research on Tupinambá capes, which were used for anthropophagic rituals by the Tupi warrior tribes of the Brazilian coast.

The question of cultural identity is intertwined with autobiographical elements in the multimedia work of Jojo Gronostay
(born in Germany with Ghanaian roots).

Objects and images of objects and body fragments are decontextualized and presented on an unusual scale, playing on the interrelationships between colonialism and capitalism.

Generally speaking, the perspectives of all these artists convey a range of different identities, whether they be individual, familial, cultural or territorial.

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