Purple Art
[August 1 2014]
“Intimität” group exhibition at Galerie Kai Erdmann, Hamburg
The word Identity has undergone many different uses and abuses ever since it became an overworked keyword to characterize the life of a human being in the modern age. Identity is a relationship, not a property of individuals. For this reason, the question of identity is not ‘Who am I?’ but ‘Who am I in relation to other people, who are other people in relation to me?’ The concept of identity is bound up with the concept of alterity, of otherness. It represents a social reality continuously produced by the experience and interaction of individuals. But how does each individual succeed in constructing identity, in view of the multifarious experiences of self in different social worlds and roles, in view of expectations of the social environment? Identity is evidently both at once: anticipated expectations of the others, and desires on the part of the individual. In this connexion, individual intimacy is an important factor in the development of identity. It is a state of profound familiarity, and at the same time one that suggests great vulnerability. Intimacy also means the possibility of intense self-reflexion; the word comes from Latin, where as the superlative of ‘In’ it meant ‘Innermost’, and implies a rethinking of existing conditions. Intimacy has a part to play in knowledge. Text Oliver Zybok and photo Tim Bruening
