1. A Portrait against the Backdrop of the Black Sea in its Absence

My photographic performance was born in the winds of the Baltic Sea, at a time when the absence of my beloved southern Crimean coast was felt especially acutely in every breath of the northern horizon. Albeit the horizon was much the same, I felt there were holes in it, as if my memory were torn apart. I invited the participants to take turns to cut their own pieces of the “Black Sea” from a roll of black cloth, against which they were then photographed. I offered them, besides the portrait, their own hole in the Black Sea, their silhouette cut out from the cloth, to feel their own absence against the backdrop of the coast. Poses and moods came from the models themselves, who, while being photographed, commented on their feelings in the face of the loss. After the action, having picked up the clippings of the Black Sea and headed to a dump, I was stopped by the participants who said that the action was not over: it’s just a matter of time till the holes are stitched again...

(in colaboration with “52Hz” Theater)

15 photographs (lightboxes)

2. Mass for a Lost Home or The Routes of the Displaced

The performance took place on the beach of the Hel Peninsula on the Polish Baltic coast with the participation of the Cracow “52 Hz” Theater, whose actors acted as the audience and, at the same time, represented a symbolic political border, which, while moving, with each step pushed the fugitive further out towards the sea. The now homeless displaced person is making their way somewhere into the unknown, trying to build a new life. The idea was to leave statistics and geopolitics aside and try to literaly stand next to the victims of such cataclysms. What do we know about the routes of the displaced, about the circumstances of their peregrinations? There are no answers, only questions. But for a displaced person, questions are their new home, as they now live in total uncertainty.

Photography in action, video documentation (13m 42s)