Identity in Flux at the 55th Venice Biennale

Aziz + Cucher, Time of Empress.

NY ARTS - The Gazelli Art house, in conjunction with the 55th Venice Biennale, presents Borderless Identity, Regional Anonymity. This exhibition deals with the importance of national identity. As beliefs evolve, where do we stand today? Artists such as Yael Bartana, Aziz + Cucher, and the acclaimed Russian performance artists AES + F explore this idea in the context of the Middle East and the West. Through different mediums, the artists force the audience to address the geo-political and socio-cultural differences that our society continues to question.Mila Askarova, the Founding Director of Gazelli Art House, London and the Curator of the show says: “The nation state by definition relies on identity, association and the sense of belonging to a structured entity.  Historically, the individual differences within a state and furthermore between states have set grounds for challenges to integration. As the international and globalizing trends over the past two hundred years developed, so has the need for a doctrine proclaiming the separateness of peoples.Regional Anonymity explores the paradox of the need to integrate in the modern world and the resistance to accept the foreign on an individual level. Through the eyes of Anthony Aziz and Sammy Cucher (Aziz+Cucher), Yael Bartana and Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich and Evgeny Svyatsky (AES+F), the current geo-political and socio-cultural developments are dissected and contextualized within a society’s aspirations for progress and the cyclical nature of history .The current affairs of the modern world are exposed, impartially, with the intention to develop a dialogue - an organic exchange of ideas - the oldest form of diplomacy, which is at the roots of a thriving and a somewhat unified future.”

Report 

Massimo Nardi