Narrative / Identity – Open Call for group exhibition

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
Oscar Wilde

As a means of grappling with the flux of identity, narratives are a necessary part of individual and social constructs. Whether internal or external, narratives define how we see ourselves and others.
Which facts construct our identities?
Do we have a variety of identities and what makes us change them?
Is the identity we display in public different than our private one?
What happens if we take an identity of another person?
Does an ID or passport tell the most important things about us? If you don’t have one does it mean you are invisible?
Does education and knowledge about society and politics change our identity?

For the first group show of 2011, February 3 – March 12, curated by Nicole Bebout and Sonja Hofstetter, The AC Institute seeks to investigate the ways in which narrative is used by contemporary artists to construct or demolish our ideas of self and other. Whether through guerrilla-like disruption, ambiguity or fantasy inspired story-telling, we are seeking artists who see narrative as essential to their artistic identity.

Focusing on experimental, installation, and new media work, AC seeks submissions from contemporary artists, and others, working in any medium. Artists are encouraged to submit work either already existing or as-yet unrealized that addresses the interlocking questions of narrative and identity; either at the level of social practice, contemporary representation, or both.
Email submissions should be sent to submissions@artcurrents.org by Sept. 15th, 2010. Please include the following in the body of your message (not as attachments):

-A short description and/or images of the work you are proposing for our spaces

-Your standard CV and contact information

-Links to your website or other sites where materials could be viewed, if possible

NO ATTACHEMENTS PLEASE

Our Mission

The AC Institute’s mission is to advance the understanding of the arts through investigation, research and education. It is a lab and forum for experimentation and critical discussion. We support and develop projects that explore a performative exchange across visual, sonic, verbal and experiential disciplines. We encourage critical writing that challenges conventional expectations of meaning and objectivity as well as the boundaries between the rational and subjective.