[-empyre-] two more guests for Week 4: Ian Alan Paul and Isak Berbic

[Renate Terese Ferro]

So happy to warmly welcome Isak Berbic and Ian Alan Paul who will join Amy Sara Carroll, Ricardo Dominguez and Melinda Rackham.  So sorry I inadvertently left them off from yesterday’s introduction. 

Isak Berbic (SFRY, US) In the 1990’s when Yugoslavia disintegrated and Sarajevo was under siege, Isak Berbic and his family escaped from the war to Croatia, lived in a refugee camp in Denmark, and received political asylum in the United States. Isak Berbic studied art at the Malmö Art Academy, Sweden, and at University of Illinois at Chicago, where he completed his MFA. In Chicago Isak produced initial pieces such as My Uncle’s Tooth, 2006, and also worked on publishing Zambak, an independent culture and politics publication for the North American communities of the Bosnian War diaspora. From 2007–2012 he was based in the United Arab Emirates, where he taught at University of Sharjah, producing site specific works, photographs, short films, including projects such as, Abu Dhabi, and, Sarajevo. Isak is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. He teaches at The State University of New York at Stony Brook. At the moment he is working with saguaro cactus, hippopotamus fossils, juju beans, lapis, shrapnel and meteorites.

Ian Alan Paul (EG, US) s a transdisciplinary artist, theorist, and curator. His practice aims to produce novel conditions for the exploration of contemporary politics and aesthetics in global contexts. His projects often incorporate digital/new media, performance, and installation, and are informed by prolonged engagements with continental philosophy and critical/queer/feminist theory. His recent work has approached topics such as the Guantanamo Bay Prison, Fortress Europe, the Zapatista communities, Drone Warfare, and the military regime in post-revolution/post-coup Cairo.


Renate Ferro
Visiting Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Art
Tjaden Hall 306
rferro at cornell.edu