Since the times immemorial, people have been looking upwards with awe, hope, love but also fear, worry and terror. The image of the heavens was a result of constant manoeuvres between fact and fiction. Dreams of defeating their own humanity, the integral need for exploration, the quest for glory and posthumous memory have always drawn humans heavenwards. But along with the scientific progress also the bar has been raised, and the goals have not always been pure. The rivalry for domination, the pursuit of power no matter the costs, the political and social issues are a dark side of humanity's expansion towards the sky. Childhood dreams of long travels, finger-drawing on the starlit sky and a disassembled telescope were the first symptoms of my future creative interests and fascinations. In the last 2 years, my art has taken on many different forms, but it continued to revolve around the theme of sky and humans. The very title of my graphic cycle Go to Heaven is supposed to express human persistence in pursuing the dream of finding the land of happiness. In an attempt to humanise the Universe, man brings a whole luggage of humanity's experiences, habits and burdens on his trip into Space. But despite of all the lofty goals, he will never be able to let go of his own humanity. Hung in a limbo of obscure phenomena, in the vacuum of his own loneliness, man will relive the drama of self-knowledge over and over again. Technological triumphs, space expansion, the thrust of new knowledge, new experiences and the stunning progress instead of calming us down, will raise the ethical problems of one's own responsibility even higher, as well as multiply the theological questions. The closer humanity gets to realising its dreams, the more it knows about the surrounding world, the bigger the anxiety with which it looks inside itself, inside self-knowledge. In the last 2 years I have created 2 graphic cycles devoted to the sky and humanity's condition, spanning together about 15 artworks made using the intaglio techniques: etching, aquatint, drypoint, vernis mou and photoaquatint, the relief printing techniques: linocut and planographic printing techniques: screen printing. In my art, I focus on creating associations so strong that they move the viewer's emotions. I'm not afraid of figurativism, which, in my opinion, grows from the tradition of painting existing in public opinion. In my case, figurativism is paired with narration. Connecting happenings to form the cause/effect sequences is an integral part of human life, the element which determines cognition, hence my inclination for fictionalisation. I often aid myself with photographs which I manipulate. By juxtaposing distant elements I'm able to arrange a situation that works on a connotation level. From this position I argue with the common stereotype of heaven. 'Strong' motives, of which I'm not afraid, undermine the notion of heaven as a paradise, land of happiness. I distance myself from the human, I point out his naivety, false heroism and self-admiration. I show the discord between the perfect human dream and the imperfect reality. In my art, the heaven becomes a promised land of war. When you dream that you dream, you are just before waking
Novalis