Identity Problem Group (IP Group) is an interdisciplinary art collective integrating visual and performing arts through the use of sound, video and architecture. It was founded in 2009 and specializes in creating multi-dimensional immersive environments.
Since its inception, a number of artists have been associated with the collective, working on projects in various personal configurations. Currently, IP Group is made up of Jakub Lech, Bogumił Misala and Dominika Kluszczyk. Jakub Lech is a light and multimedia director, illustrator and animation creator. He has collaborated with many theatres and directors on video projections and multimedia set design, including Mo Fei, directed by Krystian Lupa, and Lokis, directed by Łukasz Twarkowski. Bogumił Misala, composer and creator of film and theatre music, has worked on such shows as The Trial (Proces), directed by Krystian Lupa, and Kliniken/love is colder than death, directed by Lukasz Twarkowski. Dominika Kluszczyk is a manager of international cultural projects and co-creator of media arts events. In her work, she explores the immersive potential of sound. A member of the WRO curatorial group, she has also been a member of the Artistic Council of the Lower Silesian Art Encouragement Program since 2018. At the Wrocław branch of the Academy of Theater Arts, she teaches performance in art.
In 2014, IP Group opened IP Studio, a proprietary space in Wrocław, which combines the features and functions of a gallery, a place for action, experimentation, discussion and project implementation. It hosts exhibitions, seminars, workshops, film screenings, performance presentations and concerts. In addition, in 2018, IP Studio launched the IP Micro Residency Program for performing artists, oriented around the creative process.
Since 2017, IP Group, in collaboration with the New Horizons film festival, has been creating a space for immersive experiences called Ambient Room, where visual interactions in combination with light and sound interventions affect the audience’s senses. Each year, a new instalment of the space relates to the theme of the festival and is intended for the general public. During the project’s seven instalments to date, installations have been created that include Crown Shyness, Transforma, Balans, Lumen, ifthenelse, Discharge and Around the Pleasure Principle. IP Group also creates large-scale happenings in public spaces, such as the visual-sound performance prepared for the opening of the new headquarters of the Instytut Kultury Miejskiej (Institute of Urban Culture) in Gdańsk.
The collective also presents its work in classical gallery contexts, such as at the Watermans Centre in London, as part of the WRO Biennial (kontr-akt [counter-act] at the 18th WRO Media Art Biennial in 2019) or at the Patchlab festival. Invariably, IP Group’s main goal is to experiment with digital and analogue tools to create art that influences the viewer through his or her sensory experience. The group created an immersive space that is part of the Polish Pavilion at the 2024 Gwangju Biennale.