Questions of changing values and shifting identities in the wake of globalization play an important role for the current generation of young artists. The group exhibition "Shifting Identities—(Swiss) Art Now" is dedicated to this theme and shows a total of 68 artists who address it in very different ways. It includes a mixture of
Swiss and international artists—even though, here too, the boundaries are increasingly blurred. This is because many so-called Swiss artists are not really native Swiss at all, and conversely, several Swiss artists have moved abroad.
The exhibition "Shifting Identities" takes the (art) world's increasing flexibility of living and working conditions into account, and presents artists that are addressing changes in the wake of globalization on a cultural, political, economic, and personal level. In keeping with its subject, the exhibition is deliberately extended beyond the institutional bounds and takes in venues with key significance for our contemporary society such as Zurich Airport, a key site for our globalized world and Zurich's City Centre with its banking district.
This publication accompanies the exhibition at Kunsthaus Zurich, June 6 - August 31, 2008 (
www.shiftingidentities.ch).
It has been awarded for the “Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2008”.
