National Identity Project Exhibition

Monika Fischbein announces The National Identity Project Exhibition in association with Fotonow CIC as part of “Plymouth Art Weekender”. The event will take place over three days from Friday 22nd September - Sunday 24th September at St. Saviours CIC, 41 Lambhay Hill, Plymouth, Devon PL1 2NW. Additional information can be found on the Plymouth Art Weekender site at: http://plymouthartweekender.com/events/national-identity-project/

Representatives of all the newspaper companies, TV channels, radio stations and freelance journalists are cordially invited to make this event a successful one. We believe that our audiences will benefit from the following information and as such have decided to issue this press release.

Artist Monika Fischbein’s practice explores the many forms of identity and narrative constructions with research investigating the lyrical self in image making, incorporating national identity and its manifestation within the medium. After embarking on this journey 3 years ago by initially exploring her own sense of belonging, she has expanded her project in association with Fotonow CIC with the desire to discover the stories and faces by creating an authentic dialogue with communities around this topic. The project is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
       
The ethos of the National Identity Project involves people in discussion, addressing how national identity affects their lives and how this impacts on their overall identity? The dialogue responds to the particular needs of the changing face of modern society. It poses the question and challenges the notion of the importance of this matter.

The project toured the South West in the form of the Camper Obscura, a campervan that has in effect been converted into a mobile pinhole camera studio, which acted as the space for taking portraits and collecting stories. The exhibition itself is the culmination of the initial three month tour of the project around the South West and is a showcase of all the images, narratives and audio recorded during that time.

Both the website and content of the exhibition’s narratives and audio recordings genuinely include all kinds of opinions from the people surveyed. These aren’t the opinions of the authors or the supporters, nor have they been edited in a biased manner. Every effort has been made to remain as objective as possible during the compilation of the National Identity Project. The project’s aim is to feature a variety of viewpoints to introduce thoughts and comments from the general public, and is dedicated to the community outreach of the pilot project originated from Monika Fischbein’s creative endeavors.