Who are we? What are the traits that define us? There are several biological – and therefore hereditary – physical features that represent an identity. Sex, hair and eye color, body height, fingerprints, … characteristics which are hard to change by ourselves. The medial, social, and constructed forms of identity on the other hand are fairly easy to manipulate. How much identity or how many identities do we need, and what do we need them for? Where does the desire to reinvent ourselves, to have one or several alter egos, to control the way we are perceived from outside come from? What is the difference between a persona and an avatar? Is it a desire of all humans to be creator and creature at the same time? But not just the possible ways to create an identity are rapidly evolving; the methods to examine and verify these identities are also becoming more refined. Our identity is not just checked when we travel but every time we go shopping, when we enter public spaces, at the doctor’s, at restaurants, in social media, … how are we dealing with the data streams we produce? How do we behave, how do we protect ourselves? How are we being mapped? What influence do migrant scenarios have on the construction of identities? What about pen names and fictional characters? paraflows .XI will be looking into the components of identity and trying to find variables to put these components together in different ways.

Artists: Caroline Boettner, Daniel Djamo, Demi Hadrovic, Dorrottya Kalocsai, Ulrike Königshofer, Claudia Larcher, Luiza Margan, Lee Nutbean, Marie-Andree Pellerin, monochrom, Hans Scheirl, Leander Schönweger, Christoph Schwarz, Axel Stockburger, Kathrin Stumreich, Eden Ünluata, Hui Ye

Curators: Judith Fegerl und Günther Friesinger