The exhibition ‘They Say Identity: We Say Multitude’ opens on 13 November 2024 at 6 PM at the gallery Alma (64 Terbatas Street, Riga) with the exhibition running from 14 November 2024 to 22 January 2025. Curated by Alejandra Zapata Torres and Daniela Estrada Brill, the exhibition draws on the ideas of Paul B. Preciado, inviting viewers to embrace the fluidity of nature and resist rigid categorizations. The artworks focus on the interconnectedness of all beings, continually transforming and dissolving into new states.
Matter, nature, and life form a vast, interconnected web of existences—molecules, atoms, bodies, stars—constantly transforming and transmuting into each other. This exhibition, titled using the words of Paul B. Preciado in “We Say Revolution”, invites viewers to embrace the multiplicity and fluidity of nature and resist rigid categorizations imposed by Western structures. In “They Say Identity: We Say Multitude”, nature is seen as a site of endless intersections, where, as Paul B. Preciado states, “the intersection is the only place that exists.” There are no fixed opposites; all beings continuously cross paths and transform, stabilizing temporarily as unique forms, thoughts, and practices before dissolving into new states. This perspective calls for a planetary revolution, uniting all living beings against restrictive, oppressive, and exploitative norms.
Featured artist Adriana Knouf, PhD (NL/US), explores the entanglement of biological, technological, and cosmic entities. Knouf’s work, displayed globally and even aboard the International Space Station, delves into the fluid intersections between human, non-human, and cosmic life. As the Founding Facilitator of tranxxenolab, Knouf promotes the merging of trans and xeno entities, challenging the boundaries of identity and existence. Her exploration of time, matter, and the cosmos places her work at the heart of the exhibition’s theme of dissolving fixed categories.
The exhibition also features performances by Daphne von Schrader, Tahereh Nourani, and Daniela Estrada Brill, alongside workshops by Xaver Mikosh & Jasemin Khaleli and Dusty Fernandes. These artists and performers engage with the multitude of ways we inhabit our bodies, utilizing materials in a constant state of transformation—such as clay, sound, and rhythm—that reflect the non-linear and fluid nature of existence.
A publication accompanying the exhibition includes critical essays, poems, drawings, and reflections from artists such as Esther van Bronkhorst, Flonja Akshija, Julia Wolf, Lea Oos, Lena Michalik, Sattva Caru Giacosa, and Nerea González.
