'The Place I am Not' 2009
'Our house is invisible.
Its light is unique to it:
Its light is our eyes'
Nikos Stangos
I worked with three different countries - Russia (the motherland, the place where I was born - ‘the place I was’), England (the country I moved to - 'the place I will be') and Colombia (the unfamiliar country I made a short visit to - 'the place I am not').
Being exposed and open to new cultures, absorbing and mixing them with your own brings the sense that none of those places are within reach, they all became like one another - unfamiliar, unreal, unnatural. Home becomes a myth, a metaphor for an ephemeral, elusive place that one might spend a life time seeking. It is something that may not even exist, or at least may not ever be found.
For the project I asked relatives, friends and people I have met each to make me a model house representing a home. I left the decisions on how to make it up to them. I photographed the models and overlaid them on a background video that I shot during travels. Video projection, 10:06, shown as a continuous loop. Akbank Sanat, Istanbul