Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crisis Network

International Conference
in Zagreb

ORGANIZERS:
Identity Crisis Network
(Luka Cvetković, Klara Petrović, Michalina Sablik,
Luja Šimunović and Vera Zalutskaya)

LOCATION:
Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Croatia

DATES:
23th & 24th of May 2025

Free admission

The first international conference under the research project Identity Crisis Network is taking place in Zagreb in May 2025. Based on the open call we have invited 20 scholars, curators, artists, and other individuals and collectives to join in a conversation that seeks to challenge established notions of identity and subjectivity in contemporary art and culture.

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 compartmentalization or tokenization, deepening polarization and provoking culture wars within, as well as outside, art institutions. This position opens a space for questioning the very foundations of contemporary art practices and their potential to generate transformative experiences beyond normative and constraining limits. The Identity Crisis Network Conference seeks to explore whether it is possible to move beyond established categories of identity and simplified labels, both in cultural and political discourse. We aim to engage with these issues not through a one-sided critique but by examining the potential to generate change within the realm of art. Through this conference, we reflect on the philosophical, institutional, aesthetic, and political landscape we inhabit as artists, curators, and theorists, intending to envision new spaces where potential and contingent outcomes can emerge.

Day One

(23rd of May, Friday)

Panel 1

Identity Crisis Network

Will my crisis identity fix my identity crisis?

Identity Crisis Network

Suzana Milevska

The Clusivity of ‘We’: In solidarity with the different and the (im)possibility of the first person plural

Identity Crisis Network

Belarus, Memory, and Identity after 2020

Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crises in Contemporary German Art

Identity Crisis Network

Keynote lecture by Svitlana Matviyenko

Proliferating Terror Environments and Their Subjects: From Donbas and Chornobyl through Bucha to Kakhovka

Panel 2

Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crisis Network

Agata Wieczorek

Matrixial Bumps:
Re-thinking borders and belonging through empty wombs

Identity Crisis Network

Simon(e) van Saarloos

Trans Existence Without Defense

Identity Crisis Network

Hana Janečková

Anna Daučíková and Women’s Association ASPEKT: Alliances Beyond Identity in Recent and Contemporary Art

Keynote lecture by Jack Halberstam

Day Two

(24th of May, Saturday)

Panel 3

Identity Crisis Network

Mårten Spångberg

Different in Kind is Void of Identity

Identity Crisis Network

Mohammad Salemy

Category Theory & Differential Identities

Identity Crisis Network

Masobaby and the unborn monument

Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crisis Network

Tjaša Pogačar & Brandon Rosenbluth

Reflections on/from ARIA

Identity Crisis Network

Keynote lecture by Simon O'Sullivan

Writing, Performance and Myth-Work

Panel 4

Identity Crisis Network

To the truest of hearts - Algorithmic Authenticity and the Digital Baroque

Identity Crisis Network

Boris Ondreička

AD HOC / THE SECOND CONTEMPORARY

Identity Crisis Network

Playing at being someone online: (Digital) subject-formation as aesthetic practice

Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crisis Network

Hands turned into fingertips, fingertips spiraled into the chaos

Identity Crisis Network

Keynote lecture by Anna Longo

A personal artwork or a personal brand? Identity and reification

If you have any questions contact us at hello@identitycrisisnetwork.com

International Conference
in Zagreb

ORGANIZERS:
Identity Crisis Network (Luka Cvetković, Klara Petrović, Michalina Sablik, Luja Šimunović and Vera Zalutskaya)

LOCATION:
Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Croatia

DATES:
23th & 24th of May 2025

Free admission

The first international conference under the research project Identity Crisis Network is taking place in Zagreb in May 2025. Based on the open call we have invited 20 scholars, curators, artists, and other individuals and collectives to join in a conversation that seeks to challenge established notions of identity and subjectivity in contemporary art and culture.

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 compartmentalization or tokenization, deepening polarization and provoking culture wars within, as well as outside, art institutions. This position opens a space for questioning the very foundations of contemporary art practices and their potential to generate transformative experiences beyond normative and constraining limits. The Identity Crisis Network Conference seeks to explore whether it is possible to move beyond established categories of identity and simplified labels, both in cultural and political discourse. We aim to engage with these issues not through a one-sided critique but by examining the potential to generate change within the realm of art. Through this conference, we reflect on the philosophical, institutional, aesthetic, and political landscape we inhabit as artists, curators, and theorists, intending to envision new spaces where potential and contingent outcomes can emerge.

Day One

(23rd of May, Friday)

Panel 1

Identity Crisis Network

Will my crisis identity fix my identity crisis?

Identity Crisis Network

Suzana Milevska

The Clusivity of ‘We’: In solidarity with the different and the (im)possibility of the first person plural

Identity Crisis Network

Belarus, Memory, and Identity after 2020

Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crises in Contemporary German Art

Identity Crisis Network

Keynote lecture

by Svitlana Matviyenko

Proliferating Terror Environments and Their Subjects: From Donbas and Chornobyl through Bucha to Kakhovka

Panel 2

Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crisis Network

Agata Wieczorek

Matrixial Bumps:
Re-thinking borders and belonging through empty wombs

Identity Crisis Network

Simon(e) van Saarloos

Trans Existence Without Defense

Identity Crisis Network

Hana Janečková

Anna Daučíková and Women’s Association ASPEKT: Alliances Beyond Identity in Recent and Contemporary Art

Keynote lecture

by Jack Halberstam

Day Two

(24th of May, Saturday)

Panel 3

Identity Crisis Network

Mårten Spångberg

Different in Kind is Void of Identity

Identity Crisis Network

Mohammad Salemy

Category Theory & Differential Identities

Identity Crisis Network

Masobaby and the unborn monument

Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crisis Network

Tjaša Pogačar

& Brandon Rosenbluth

Reflections on/from ARIA

Identity Crisis Network

Keynote lecture

by Simon O'Sullivan

Writing, Performance and Myth-Work

Panel 4

Identity Crisis Network

To the truest of hearts - Algorithmic Authenticity and the Digital Baroque

Identity Crisis Network

Boris Ondreička

AD HOC / THE SECOND CONTEMPOR-ARY

Identity Crisis Network

Playing at being someone online: (Digital) subject-formation as aesthetic practice

Identity Crisis Network

Identity Crisis Network

Hands turned into fingertips, fingertips spiraled into the chaos

Identity Crisis Network

Keynote lecture

A personal artwork or a personal brand? Identity and reification.

If you have any questions contact us at hello@identitycrisisnetwork.com

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