Hacking Identity—Dancing Diversity

Esch2022—European Capital of Culture presents Hacking Identity—Dancing Diversity, a group exhibition organised in collaboration with the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. The exhibition looks at the mediatisation of phenomena related to the dissolution, transformation, and duplication of identity in the 21st century. 

The exhibition layout and route draw a connecting line through a number of contemporary artistic approaches, from atmospheric media installations to politically motivated found-footage videos, from participative narration and internet-based live projection to grotesque pop fable; from textile media collage and sculptural objects to electronic composition. 

This inaugural exhibition in the new Möllerei pursues the idea of hacking and in doing so diversifies the original industrial identity of the Möllerei, a disused storage for iron ores at the heart of the former steel plant of Esch-Belval. As a historically listed site and exhibition space, the Möllerei represents the cultural transformation from the 20th to the 21st century. The exhibition creates a close connection between materiality and mediality and gives rise to a poetic space that mediates between the past and that which is emerging, between the personal and the foreign. In inviting visitors to encounter doppelgängers, avatars, iconic media heroes and sci-fi creatures, Hacking Identity—Dancing Diversity questions media influence processes of identification—ranging from the cult of personality to emancipation, imitation and ironisation. 

The exhibition features the work of artists Kateryna Borovschi, Ludger Brümmer, Saddie Choua, Nadim Choufi, Danica Dakić, Margret Eicher, Thomas Feuerstein, Chiara Fumai, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, Hanna Haaslahti, Daniel Heiss, Délio Jasse, Marc Lee, Laurent Mignonneau & Christa Sommerer, Marie-Luce Nadal, onformative, Dennis Oppenheim, Wong Ping, Jonathan Rescigno, rosalie, Lázaro Saavedra, Tristan Schulze, Virgil Widrich and Lu Yang.

Hacking Identity—Dancing Diversity is curated by Anett Holzheid, scientific consultant at ZKM, and Peter Weibel, chairman and CEO of ZKM. 
The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of public events, including guided tours and workshops.
A catalogue published by Hatje Cantz will be released in Summer 2022. 

Project management: Vincent Crapon & Anett Holzheid 
Technical project management: Thomas Schwab 
Facility management: Guillaume Taens 
Scenography: Matthias Gommel 
Exhibition graphic design: Cropmark 
Exhibition visual: JUNO