Skin Deep

Open­ing: Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 19, 2024

In an era marked by frac­tured iden­ti­ties and polar­ized dis­course, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the wake of glob­al human­i­tar­i­an crises, this exhi­bi­tion under­scores the urgency of resis­tance that pre­serves the authen­tic­i­ty of one’s voice amidst the socio-polit­i­cal forces seek­ing to dis­man­tle it. Skin Deep, curat­ed by RU Guest Cura­tor, Izabela Gola, the final Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed exhi­bi­tion of the year at Gov­er­nors Island — a space itself emblem­at­ic of tran­sience, host­ing artists from across the globe — this Octo­ber brings togeth­er four Euro­pean artists whose prac­tices exam­ine the body as a lyri­cal con­duit for reflect­ing on the con­struct of selfhood.

Skin Deep reimag­ines the body as a ves­sel, con­stant­ly evolv­ing yet deeply root­ed in the com­plex­i­ties of trau­ma, mem­o­ry, and iden­ti­ty. Through their works, Eros Dibra (Alba­nia), Anna Orbaczews­ka (Poland), Vik­tor Petrov (Bul­gar­ia, based in Berlin) and Mil­i­ca Zhivkovic (Mon­tene­gro), nav­i­gate the body as a site of resis­tance, through strong visu­al expres­sions that bridge per­son­al and col­lec­tive histories.

Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed is one of the 2024 Gov­er­nors Island Arts Orga­ni­za­tions in Residence