The Survival Identity Project

In the Survival Identity Project (2009-) I question various aspects of survival and its relations with identity. Man as an individual is faced by inner conflicts, fears, doubts and desires, as well as challenges of consistency and existence, as well as physical and (more importantly) intellectual survival, presented by the outside world. Research and presentation of these inner conflicts and external challenges are the main focus of this project.

The basic material I use is the "survival foil", designed for saving accident victims. I myself have used it several times in extreme situations in the mountains, wherefore, in a way, it has become a sort of my personal survival symbol, expressing the essential need for "hibernation" and "preserving the heat" until the external unfavourable conditions have passed.

As a painter, I "re-create" my works as a physical evidence of the artist's presence in this world by wrapping them in the foil in various forms, temporarily changing their visual identity. I also apply this intervention principle to the objects with which I had no personal relation before, but in which I see a materialisation of social identity structures as well as social, urban, emotional, intellectual, cultural or religious transformations and evolution of the very survival in various time-space contexts.These interventions affect various aspects of individuals and physical objects’ (objective reality), posing, thus, the questions of cultural, sociological, intellectual, emotional, visual, material, religious and other sorts of survivals.