Our shared and collective identity
My most recent project Universe focuses on the 'consciousness' of our identity. Who are we in relation to our physical, social and political space? What is our unique identity and how does it relate to the collective identity that has shaped us?
The Universe Project raises questions about freedom, privacy, social behaviour, self-determination and the capacity for self-development within our humanistic tradition. The Universe project makes these aspects visible in a new series of sculptures and installations that I have been working on since 2015.
Our unique identity
Our identity verifiably exists in the space that is formed in our skull, and which is filled with our own brains. But what lies outside this space? And is the world outside this personal 'individual space' unique or the same for everyone? Questions that philosophers have been pondering for centuries.
Our shared identity
Our identity is not only defined by our personal space, but to a large extent by our environment. Only a 'shared identity' makes it possible to function within a society.
Our collective identity
For our identity to be part of a commonly shared system, a 'consciousness' of social and political conventions and constructions is needed. Together they form a system of 'collective fantasies' within which our own and the shared identity can take shape.
Identity as the core of the Universe Project
It is these constructs arising from the unique, the shared and the collective identity that form the core of Universe. Not only in Universe/Self-Portrait 45, the basis of the Universe project, but also in my installation In Case and the video installation Cordon Sanitaire 2020 in which I show the 27 corona speeches of the 27 EU leaders and the traditional setting in which they were delivered.
It is precisely in what we recognise as 'tradition' that our shared and collective identity becomes visible.
