Bárbara Oettinger

“My work explores questions of displacement and uncertainty as it relates to and affects the knowing of identity. I am interested in how individuals understand themselves through their connection to their country of origin and current location, how they struggle (or search) to define language, history, traditions, their culture.

Through the use of video, photography, and installation, I reveal the role that power plays in peoples’ precarious relationships with the nation-state. I seek to outline different levels of socialization
through the intrapersonal, family and community.

My current projects are encounters with dialogues, with a focus on testimonies that retain historical meaning, while telling of the psychological experience. Testimonies not only based on the supposed immediacy and accuracy of the historical source, but also on the subjective construction of different narratives.”

• Portfolio Bárbara Oettinger