9 | Petroglyph. Photo from the project "Herbarium". Italy, Calabria | 2018.
Herbarium
For my shooting I used roots and various objects that were thrown on the coast of Calabria by the sea. It is an allegory for people who were thrown out onto the edge of life. This attempt to tell through the “Live” illustrations about feelings of people who survived a tragedy of migration is based on a personally experienced trauma of a refugee. “Herbarium” is my archive of experienced emotions and preserved memories transmitted through photographic images, which I project on migrants who find themselves on the coast of Calabria.
The roots encompass multiple levels of meaning, as well as contradictions, ideas of homeland, conflict, and hope. It is a strong symbol for creating identity.
To a person migration stands for boundary between past and future. The shooting took place on a shore. Coast is a boundary between land and sea, a border zone. Refugees are also in a borderline state of uncertainty: psychologically and physically they are neither there nor here.
Each photo in the series marks a new artistic image, emotionally associated with a previous one.