Identity Theft. The Cultural Colonization of Contemporary Art

Identity Theft asks some tough questions about the use and place of art in the early twentyfirst century: How has it been appropriated as a form of advertising or corporate identity? How is it made the vehicle of novel nationalisms and historical re-inventions engineered by nation-states and their current ideologies of identity and cultural value? At the same time, with a cold eye, its contributors consider whether contemporary artists are in any position to resist these forms of incorporation, or even have any desire to. Identity Theft's strenght lies in its detailed empirical case-studies – refusing generalizations and a historiacal abstractions –offering indispensable accounts of art'splace now in discussions of Palestine and Israel, Turkey, Iran, Latin America, Nigeria, India, Papua New Guinea, Germany, Eastern Europe, as well as in Britain and the USA.