Curatorial AccountPrecarious Art: How an Intersectional Approach to Exhibiting Led to Multi-Dimensional Performances of Identity

Precarious Art was a three-part exhibition and event series that took place between 2015 and 2018 in Berlin, London and Bayreuth. The first installment, Precarious Art: Protest and Resistance, took place at alpha nova & galerie futura (Berlin) in 2015. It included an exhibition, film and spoken-word evenings as well as a two-day symposium. The subjects of racism and sexism within the Berlin art establishment as experienced by Blackwomenartists andwomenartists of color were addressed. Participants included artists, academics and activists, who identified and discussed discriminatory structures and representation practices. The goal was to flesh out courses of action toward breaking open oppressive mechanisms as well as to build networks and alliances in order to initiate a sustainable collaborative process. The second, Precarious Art: Artificial Boundaries, took place at alpha nova & galerie futura as well as 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning (London) in 2017. The exhibition and interactive workshops confronted the possibilities, realities and strategies toward realizing long-term change in the struggle of daily and structural racist and sexist conditions in general, as well as within the art establishments of Berlin and London. The final installment, Precarious Art: From Reflections to Mandate, took place at the Iwalewahaus (Bayreuth) in 2018. With art and video installations as well as a panel discussion, the artists and curators reflected on the cultural shift that is taking place across Europe and to what extent this shift, on the one hand, can be resisted through art and, on the other hand, worsens the precarity of the personal lives of the artists. The unexpected thread that tied these three installments most closely together was the—both intentional and unintentional—performance of identities. In this article, we use dierent works from the three installments to exemplify the specificity of the precarity of intersecting identities by illustrating the importance of performing those identities as a survival strategy.