Symposium: ‘Identity Complex: Identity representation within global exhibition-making’

Identity Complex consists of a one-day symposium focusing on identity representation in the context of international, large-scale, survey exhibitions of contemporary art. It aims to provide new insights into the challenges involved in the staging of these exhibitions. The symposium seeks to bring together renowned artists, curators, academics, and researchers across the Midlands and beyond to contribute to a growing body of research and curatorial practice relating to the relationship between identity, contemporary art, and globalisation.

The confirmed line-up includes: Dr Shwetal A. Patel, founding member of India’s first visual arts biennial, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Sunil Shah, artist, writer and PhD candidate at UAL researching art and exhibition histories with a focus on Documenta11, Dr Yaiza Hernández Velázquez, lecturer in visual cultures at Goldsmiths, Abdulrazaq Awofeso, sculptor and installation artist living and working between Birmingham and Lagos, Jessica Taylor, Curator & Deputy Artistic Director at International Curators Forum and curator of the 2017 Diaspora Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and Ibiye Camp, artist, architect, and fashion designer living between London and Freetown, Sierra Leone.