Photographs by Marcin Dudek

“To emphasise that the projection of a set of possibilities that defines my own identity is not a process that can be understood as taking place in isolation by some kind of transcendental subject but is one that requires some kind of encounter between I and You.”  (Geuss, 2010, 124)

David Birkin, Louisa Adam and Vassilis Kantas in discussion on identity loss in politicized art and the history of photography. During the discussion, the context for the actions and meaning of the activities represented in evidentially political images, were opened up so as to address issues surrounding the loss of identity in photographic history.

David Birkin’s performance took place before the discussion. The performance was in response to Civilian Victim,Vietnam, 1967, an iconic image by Jones Griffiths. In reference to the activity of the audience members in the above images, as well as in the original image itself, a tag is slipped around the wrist of each person. With his head bound Birkin reiterated the names of deceased Iraqi civilians, one name and ref code on each tag, taken from the Iraq Body Count data source.

IBC is an ongoing project offering public access to a database of violent civilian deaths during and since the invasion of 2003

“The count encompasses non-combatants killed by military or paramilitary action and the breakdown in civil security following the invasion”. (www.iraqbodycount.org)