THE CINDY SHERMAN EFFECT
IDENTITY AND TRANSFORMATION IN CONTEMPORARY ART

Identity, its construction, its transformations and its fictional dimensions are at the core of the artistic practice of the American photographer Cindy Sherman (born 1955).

Using the camera as a mirror or a stage for the self (or its surrogate), Sherman's work developed out of 1970s performance art. Since her first series, the Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980), her work has never ceased to be a formative stylistic influence.

Her influential researches on the deconstruction of the portrait and stereotypes (whether cultural, gender-specific or sexual ones) are shared by many other contemporary artists such as Candice Breitz, Sophie Calle, Elke Krystufek, Zoe Leonard, Sarah Lucas, Zanele Muholi, Pipilotti Rist, Markus Schinwald, Lorna Simpson, Wu Tsang, Gavin Turk, Ryan Trecartin, Gillian Wearing. Juxtaposing their works, the exhibition will cast light on some of the fundamental questions related to identity in our globalized world challenged by new technologies, gene manipulation and cloning.