I believe that ideas are not something you come up with, but the intentions that are searched for and uncovered within and outside oneself. For me, these intentions often come from the image on my mind, and I see my mission in uncovering the stories, hidden behind them. In this way, I perceive drawing and writing as integral parts of my artistic process, uniting in working on films at the end. I combine video and stop motion in my approaches, and I see it as my way to cross the border of real and dreamlike, moment and eternity, contemplation and action - and tell these stories; it brings me the freedom, the understanding that everything can be alive and meaningful — behind and through the camera. I treat filming as drawing, and editing as poetry, I use all my sources: my imagination, my organisational skills, my thinking and my possibility to act spontaneously, something in me that always calls for challenges and risks and my desire to be on every step of the process, to direct, but also to give space and opportunities for other people to show themselves and to create an exchange of visions. And there, on the intersection of all of this, my projects are born.
On a social level, I see Creators as Guides that strive to reach higher levels, and that take the society or a group of people with them. They make the exchange of wisdom and experience between generations possible; as shamans in old tribes, they guide people through the necessary inner transitions, through moments of uncertainty to the moments of clarity, making them visible and helping to overcome struggles, to leave behind what should die and to give space for what should live. On this instance, art becomes a bridge between reflection, action and prevision. Through art we can see worlds beneath worlds, and they have no limitations; like an alchemist process, it generates endless possibilities within one object, one idea, one body. In a way, all art is coming from the same stream, strives for one thing, and is about search for a deeper and more conscious life, for comprehending the world: inner and outer. It communicates with the audience through truth and trust: giving hints, keys to the door; leaving space for imagination and interpretation, based on their own experiences, associations, feelings.
My work is very influenced by Carl Gustav Jung and the Jungian School of Psychoanalysis, their views on soul, collective unconsciousness, dreams, archetypes, mythology and symbolism on individual and group levels. As psychology is knowing of the soul, I see a relation between it and art as a crucial one and strive for a further development of it throughout my artistic practice. Symbolism in my work could be perceived both as an approach and a subject. Symbols help me to understand questions from different perspectives, to see what is beneath the surface, they are the roads to knowing and exploring; as deeply personal as communicators on a ‘human level’. From this relation comes my approach to uniting personal and global in my works: the deeper one goes inside, the more universal things appear. In my works, the same themes and motifs interrelate on the personal level and on the level of a social group.
I am fascinated by poetic cinema, surrealism and magic realism in cinema, art and literature. Objects and natural forces are very important to me, baring a symbolical load, unfolding their hidden life and playing the role of the equal protagonists in my works.
An important subject of my work is the image of femininity. Being brought up and mainly influenced by women, I grew up with a different perception of femininity that the one existing in a society. For me, the image of woman was always the one that could pose a threat, could create a shelter, could haunt and could save, it was a big force of life and death. I strive to broaden and challenge the perception of woman in our society and to find ways to speak of equality not on the base of politics or exclusion, but through portraying deeper and more multilayered female images and characters.
Regarding my position, I feel the most related to the idea of ‘an auteur’: a person who creates ‘worlds’, built on the base of his/her artistic philosophy and style, and takes part on every stage of the process. I see my vision reaching its full potential in art house films, I’m also interested at working on independent and collaborative interdisciplinary artistic projects. In the future, I also strive to create space for interdisciplinary exchange between artists and to combine my artistic practice with educational one.