State, Transnational Citizenship and the Transformative Power of Art: The NSK State in Time

This article deals with one of the most intriguing art projects at the intersection of art and social experiment—The NSK State in Time. This is a paradigmatic transnational state that does not have a territory and whose citizenship can be obtained regardless of one’s nationality, citizenship, race, religion or political convictions. It was established in 1992 by the Slovenian art collective Neue Slowenische Kunst—the NSK, and has seen continuous manifestations in various sociopolitical contexts worldwide. The most prominent one in recent time took place in 2017, when the NSK State opened its own pavilion at the Venice Biennale—a nationally conceptualized fine art event—to exhibit its art next to other countries of the world. This case study analyses the development of The NSK State in Time through the 28 years of its existence, shedding light on the state-formative role of culture and art in the shaping of communities and their identities in the globalized world. The author argues that the NSK State has established a utopian political space that has the power of transcending the ideological limitations of the existing (spatial) states. She demonstrates that this transformative power derives from its liminal position and relentless pursuit of in-betweenness as opposed to the social and political order of the localities where the manifestations of the NSK State take place