SELF RELIGIONED
The project "Self-Religioned" is about the search for "God" in the surrounding world. Being an atheist, I was looking for symbols of faith. I focus on folk objects of worship that reflect a non-institutional attitude to faith.
For centuries, art has not existed outside of religion. Therefore, studying art history up to a certain time, we study religious art. In my project, I explore art in order to get closer to religion on the contrary. For my research, I choose non-institutional objects, but aesthetics created by the followers of the cult. In my understanding, it practically becomes a pagan object, but thereby has a direct connection with believers.
The project was shot in Warsaw, Minsk and Gomel in 2016-2020.
For centuries, art has not existed outside of religion. Therefore, studying art history up to a certain time, we study religious art. In my project, I explore art in order to get closer to religion on the contrary. For my research, I choose non-institutional objects, but aesthetics created by the followers of the cult. In my understanding, it practically becomes a pagan object, but thereby has a direct connection with believers.
The project was shot in Warsaw, Minsk and Gomel in 2016-2020.
Warszaw, 2020
Part 1. Sacral Life
The first part of the project — Sacred Life — is dedicated to religious symbols in the daily routine. This is a documentation of religious objects in an urban environment combined with self-portraits, in which I am looking for the "divine principle". I contrast my body as a metaphor for everything sinful in the Christian faith, while looking for visual and conceptual connections between the body and religious objects.
Part 2. Kapliczka
Typology of Warsaw "Kapliczka" with the image of the Virgin Mary. The hypocritical worship of the only immaculate woman in the patriarchal Catholic system has always interested me. Any living woman cannot achieve the ideal of the Virgin Mary and accordingly occupies the last place in the hierarchy of power. At the same time, there is a cult of worship of Mary as a Mother, pleas for help, salvation are addressed to her. Just like in the real world, huge expectations are placed on women in raising children, caring for elderly parents, at the same time devaluing their work and existence itself. But it is never applied to men.
Part 3. Do you believe in God at all?
The third part — Do you believe in God at all? — is a documentation that I filmed in Gomel, in the "object of everyday religion" closest to my parents' house — the "holy spring and font". Located in a semi-abandoned ravine between the districts of the city, this place attracts many people. They come here to "wash away their sins", to collect "healing water". During the shooting, my random drunken heroes asked the question: Do you even believe in God? For them, my negative answer was a problem, since the presence of an unbeliever was more dangerous for the "holy place" than the presence of drunks swearing obscenities.
