Did Not Happen

The work focuses on the topic of how power can be used to influence both individual and public perception, thereby altering collective memory and, subsequently, the official course of history. Despite the advancements in tools for documenting details, it is still possible to manipulate the overall picture. Even eyewitnesses can begin to doubt what they have seen with their own eyes.

The subject is presented through different media and addressed with personal and political approaches:

• A painted, large-scale triptych reflects vulnerability, blurred memory, and aspiration. The central picture shows a text from which all relevant words have been erased, so that the meaning has been lost—as if it had never existed. To its left is a spiral with no way out. The self-contained spiral is juxtaposed with an open composition of points and dots on the right.

• Two metal lettering pieces with sharp edges, “Internal Conflict” and “With The Other”, are positioned in front of a mirror so that the spectator can see themselves in the context of these words. This highlights how inner conflict, on both personal and political levels, reflects on the self and on the surroundings.

• A video shows a person secretly working at a desk, recorded by a surveillance camera and displayed on a monitor.

• An object consists of my own erased and blackened diaries, which are bound together with metal wire. This piece demonstrates how personal memories can be deformed and transformed into an anonymous body.

• A video projection shows a person’s foot attempting to erase footprints on a dusty ground, repeatedly removing traces and stirring up particles.

• A billboard, placarded with the recurring photo-motif of a news anchor on a television screen, was taken in an ordinary living room.

• Thousands of small-format prints of the same photo-motif have been stacked. This presentation alludes to how narratives spread.