LADA

The ancient Slavic goddess of spring and love.

In 2017,I moved my studio from Switzerland to Serbia and became a freelance artist. In my host country, I was confronted with a lot of litter on the streets. In Switzerland everything is clean and tidy. But I know that appearances are deceptive. The waste may not be dumped on the roadside, but as a "high standard of living society" we are incredible consumers and environmental polluters.However, I decided notto make criticism-art and decided to make art from plastic bottles, that were lying around everywhere.

A new idea of sculpting from plastic waste was born.

am I good?

Progress cannot be stopped, and people do not like to forgo. Maybe forgo isn't the answer either. So far, we have copied a lot from nature in technology. Cycle is the most ingenious invention of nature. Everything is returned to the cycle. We should copy nature and create our own cycle for our overproduction of all kinds of things. I try to make my contribution artistically to this cycle. I give a discarded plastic bottle a new spiritual and material value, so it has a place in this world again.

Hermit, Lada and Harlequin

In May 2022, we exhibited with the artist group "inside-outside" in Winterthur in Hall 710. Our theme was “caminos”, the paths.To achive this title, I decided to examine the "inner ways of a person" and exhibited the three sculptures. Hermit for transience, Harlequin for liberation and Lada for the transformation that follows. When we look deeply, we see that everything changes. This moment reminds us that there is a huge difference between knowing and experiencing impermanence. When we reach this realization, our liberation begins. The Harlequin takes it with humour, does a headstand and empties his pockets. He symbolically frees himself from any heavy thoughts or any ballast.

“dance with me”

I applied in 2022 for an exhibition in the USA. The exhibition was organized by a non-profit organization called: ” Embracing Our Differences”, based in Sarasota, Florida, which uses the power of arts and education to expand consciousness and open the heart to celebrate the diversity of the human family.” Quote from their website. The topic was also “embracing our differences”. I was not accepted, but one of my favourite sculptures, "dance with me" was created. I was inspired by folk dances where everyone dances together in a circle. Imagine our ancestors dancing like this to charge themselves with courage and energy. So, my little sculpture represents such a dance. Each dancer has its advantages and disadvantages. Like the angel in the middle. He's missing a leg, which is probably a major handicap for dancing. But he is supported by the others. But he has wings, and his fellow dancers benefit from this lightness and encouragement.

We should dance together, not fight.

Excerpt from Genesis 3

Gen 3,1, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

Gen 3,2, The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

Gen 3,3, but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

Gen 3,4, "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.

Gen 3,5, "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Gen 3,6, When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Gen 3,7, Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

So, we know the massive scenario that followed that first drama. I wonder how the story would have continued if Adam had tasted the forbidden fruit first and then given it to his wife? Or even if they both hadn't listened to the snake. Would we spend the whole day lounging in the shade of the forbidden tree, making love and eating the fruits of paradise? Who knows?

Exhibitions

2013 arte Binningen, Basel CH

2014 Bistro im Rathaus und in der Reformierten Kirche Winterthur Mattenbach

2014 Altes Stadthaus Winterthur, Gruppenausstellung inside-outside

2014 Alte Kaserne Kulturzentrum , Winterthur

2014 Power of Earth, Landhaus Solothurn CH

2015 Altes Stadthaus Winterthur, Gruppenausstellung inside-outside

2015 Kulturzentrum Alte Kaserne Winterthur CH, Gruppenausstellung „echtpunkt“

2015 Basel, Kunstschule , Gruppenausstellung mit “echtpunkt»

2015 " beyondtheconnectionevent" Zürich, Credit Suisse

2016 Altes Stadthaus, Gruppenausstellung inside-outside

2017 Die Unjurierte Winterthur CH

2017 Halle 710 Gruppenausstellung inside-outside

2022 pariscollagecollective , womensday 2022

2022 Halle710 Gruppenausstellung inside-outside

2022 virtual exhibition IAA New Generation Miami Spring, USA

2022 PASA Fest, Seoul South Korea

2022 artbox swissart expo, Eremit on Screen, Hauptbahnhof Zürich

2022 artbox swissart expo, Eve on Screen, Miami USA

2023 Florence Biennale

HERMIT 2021

sculpture made from melted PET bottles, 150cm high

Quote from the book that has accompanied me since I was 15 years old.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Quoth Siddhartha: “I’ve had thoughts, yes, and insight, again and again. Sometimes, for an hour or for an entire day, I have felt knowledge in me, as one would feel life in one’s heart. There have been many thoughts, but it would be hard for me to convey them to you. Look, my dear Govinda, this is one of my thoughts, which I have found: wisdom cannot be passed on. Wisdom which a wise man tries to pass on to someone always sounds like foolishness.”

THERE IS NO SAFETY 2021

sculpture made from melted PET bottles, 48x36cm

Quote from my favorite book The unbearable lightness of being, Milan Kundera

A young woman forced to keep drunks supplied with beer and siblings with clean underwear—instead of being allowed to pursue something higher —stores up great reserves of vitality, a vitality never dreamed of by university students yawning over their books. Tereza had read a good deal more than they, and learned a good deal more about life, but she would never realize it. The difference between the university graduate and the autodidact lies not so much in the extent of knowledge as in the extent of vitality and self-confidence. The elan with which Tereza flung herself into her new Prague existence was both frenzied and precarious. She seemed to be expecting someone to come up to her any day and say, What are you doing here? Go back where you belong! All her eagerness for life hung by a thread: Tomas's voice. For it was Tomas's voice that had once coaxed forth her timorous soul from its hiding place in her bowels.

I am not my mind

a thread of silk,

tears

an oppressive stone,

rolls there.

a cloud of cotton wool,

sails past.

a mouse-grey cloud,

it rains out.

It's just thoughts!

Come and go