Wider die institutionelle Identität

On an oversized identity card, the face part of the passport photo is replaced by a monitor. If you step in front of the monitor, you will be filmed by a camera mounted above it. Your face now appears on the screen as part of the installation, as a variable passport photo. The work »Wider die institutionelle Identität« [Against the Institutional Identity] interrogates the meaning of personal and institutional identity. The passport as a document prescribed by the state is revealed here as a construct. The installation invites us to think about identity far away from any institutional framework conditions – an approach, that is enormously topical, especially today which is characterized by streams of migrants. How can it be, in a world that is just, that papers, paper passports, decide on human rights? Why do people migrate without a passport but with a smartphone? Are papers forged because »without papers« (»sans papiers«) people are worth nothing?