After Rethinking Nature (2021), Café Crème and EMOP have chosen the theme of Rethinking Identity for their 2023 edition. In this context, the curators Claire di Felice and Yasemin Elçi focus on the process of identity construction, in resonance with the contents conveyed by social networks. neimënster hosts three exhibitions.

Formative experiences — from childhood to motherhood — are key to the construction of a woman's identity. In her book The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir eloquently states that "one is not born, but rather becomes a woman”. For girls, building one’s own identity necessarily involves identification with the mother.

In a mother-daughter relationship, daughters - because of their physical similarity and proximity — identify with the maternal figure and vice versa. Je suis moi, je suis toi presents an intimate and personal portrayal of self-discovery consisting of photographs and video installations by Aneta Grzeszykowska, Krystyna Dul, Eman Khokhar and Celeste Leeuwenburg, each of whom address themes surrounding the universal mother-daughter relationship. 

The sociologist Nancy Chodorow explains that ”mothers see their daughters as an extension of themselves”. This relationship was the subject of many feminist artists working prominently in the 60s and 70s, including Louise Bourgeois, Valie Export, and Mary Kelly, who sought a shift from motherhood to mothering, that is, from patriarchy to feminist mothering.

Taking into account these feminist ideas, artist Aneta Grzeszykowska observes how these elements are key to forging a woman's identity. The works portray the artist's daughter Franciszka playing with a life-size doll of the artist herself. Addressing socially enforced gender roles, the series entitled Mama shifts the dynamic of power towards the child. Here, the daughter nurtures the adult as she would a baby doll, and the parent becomes the object onto which the child projects a fantasy of adulthood. Reminiscent of the philosophy of Luce Irigaray, Grzeszykowska underlines the importance of breaking away from the repressive discourse which only sees the woman as a mother, and for the daughter to recognize her as a woman, ultimately distancing herself from motherly omnipotence.

In the series Becoming, artist Krystyna Dul reflects on her relationship with her partner and the transformational nature of becoming a mother since the birth of their daughter. These intimate, dramatically lit scenes, reminiscent of historic portrayals of the Madonna and Child, expose the fusional character of their relationship wherein mother and infant form an intense unity. In her bathtub scenes, they are in symbiosis, recalling the time the child spent in the womb.

While the works of Grzeszykowska and Dul comment on the mother-daughter relationship from the maternal point of view, Eman Khokhar and Celeste Leeuwenburg individually examine the issues of filiation, navigating between cultural and family heritage. After travelling back to the Middle East, Khokhar found herself reconnecting with her mother and her roots. Her superimposed imagery, combining cultural motifs such her mother’s headscarf and prayer beads and an obscured self-depiction, presents a veil that at once hides and reveals their similarities and differences. These juxtapositions emphasise what strengthens their bond.

Leeuwenburg’s series, From what she told me, and how I feel, is the result of a family collaboration and a dialogue between a mother's past and a daughter's present. 

Referring to the narratives and images of the 1970s performances of her mother, the Argentinean artist Delia Cancela, Leeuwenburg's work takes a contemporary turn by combining video and still images. Through this homage, she reconnects, engages, and aligns herself with her mother while creating a work of her own which builds her identity as an artist and a woman today.

Je suis moi, je suis toi seeks to unite the various perspectives surrounding the challenging yet inspiring mother-daughter dynamic through a social and cultural lens, with a nod to the women surrounding us, who we are today and who we will become tomorrow.

Claire di Felice