"A sailor with blue eyes in a blue cap" Print

My artistic practice goes back to the experience that defines my identity and that is my blessed childhood. I was born and raised in Tuva, and my earliest memories are of a sincere admiration for the mystery and power of nature, in which the relationships between species and phenomena are coherent, open and simple. In my visual experiences, I develop an expressionist aesthetic, recreating with it that uncluttered, enthusiastic view of the world that is characteristic of a child. A world full of treasures. The world as an inner cosmos. Exploring my unique cultural code, turning to the indigenous, shamanic practices that fuelled my childhood imagination and which I manifest today in the details of my lifestyle, in these origins I find a mutual respect for the other - for the incomprehensible beings that inhabit this world. In conversations with fire and sky, in fairy tales and legends, I see an example of empathy for non-human beings and any kind of Other. This optic, not yet inoculated with the poison of mutual hatred, is the common ground we all need to address the global challenges of today's postcolonial society, in which the colonising recurrences of anger and fear are still alive. For me, reclaiming the ancestral cultural contexts that constitute my identity, embodying them in figurative images, is a work with trauma, with the loss of an entire world that has nourished me. At the same time, it is a practice of awakening empathy, a manifesto calling for peaceful cohabitation on earth. The imagined communities of nations and cultures are not an invitation for conflict or detachment, but an opportunity to build dialogue. Mutuality needs difference. As an artist, I initiate dialogue by representing my identity and at the same time opening myself up to change and the latest practices. In my work I use experimental materials that already carry a certain cultural and symbolic code. For example, by using cardboard as a base for painting, I launch into the image the idea of a hidden value, an elusive memory that lacks care.The sand mixed into the paint symbolises time and human memory.The painting becomes a kind of artefact, the origin of which is not always revealed to the viewer at first sight. At the same time, I am interested in the possibilities of digital image generation as a projection of artefacts of consciousness.