Exhibition, 12 October – 5 November 2011
Opening: 11 October, 7 pm
Open Space, Open Systems – Zentrum für Kunstprojekte, Vienna

The Drifting Identity Station uses a model of the former Soviet polar stations, which were used in the 1950s to explore the arctic environment. The Drifting Identity Station operates in the harsh climate associated with “political winter”. It is initiated as a research platform to monitor and preserve the data related to the evolving state of identity in a given context, here in the context of European Union and the countries of teh Baltic region and neighbouring countries of the Eastern Partnership (Belarus, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbajan).

Visual arts projects and other contributions that will be on display in the Station comment on the evolution of the social engineering project of the European Union, as a political construct in progress, and the political identity of the neighbouring countries at its current state. At the same time the artists assume the posture of researchers that collect the samples from the field in order to preserve the residual traces that rearticulate the post-socialist condition. The area of research is extended to Mediterranean region, which has recently become a fertile ground for the export of European democracy.

Project curator: Stefan Rusu

Participating artists:
Marina Naprushkina
Kristap Gulbis
Stefanos Tsivopoulos
Societe Realiste (Ferenc Gróf and Jean-Baptiste Naudy)
Tilmann Mayer-Faje

Seminars and workshops: DRIFTING IDENTITY STATION by Gülsen Bal and Stefan Rusu
11 – 18 October 2011
Institut für Kunst und Gestaltung, TU Wien

Round table talk/discussion: De-linking, de-coloniality by Marina Gržinić
3 November 2011, 7–8:30 pm
Open Space, Open Systems – Zentrum für Kunstprojekte
Lassingleithnerplatz 2, 1020 Vienna

Click here to download the programme. For more information, please send an email to office@openspace-zkp.org.