The starting point for the spatial installation STAGNUM was a text written by myself, in which I talked about my personal states of mind when I tried to practice meditation. Even though the text was the initial factor from which I started to create this work, it is present in the work as one of the equal elements of the installation. Avoiding the image of an explanatory text, I used an old-fashioned mirror-based projector – a magnifier that allows me to project a magnified image directly from a piece of paper. Thus, the text becomes an image and its content loses some of its significance, but, thanks to the projection, it becomes part of the installation and, together with the other elements, creates a coherent work. All the components of the work are equally meaningful to me and I deliberately do not explain why I have chosen one element or another, thus drawing the viewer deeper into the meditative atmosphere created by the whole. If I eliminated any of the components of the installation, I would be left with individual objects that I had found or made with my own hands. It’s all about the whole.

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In this work, I am trying to talk about slowing down or, almost, stopping processes, so the name STAGNUM is not accidental (in Latin, the word “stagnum” means standing water). In the early stages, meditation practice interested me as a technique to slow down the flow of chaotic thoughts that constantly accompany everyday life. Or so it seemed at the beginning. However, when I started meditating, I found that when I tried to slow down my mental processes, my physical level was also affected – my breathing became heavy and unsteady. Meanwhile, the flow of thoughts has only intensified and the sense of time has changed. When I tried to meditate, the time passed unusually long and seemed to stop altogether. 

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Despite the fact that I am talking about quite intimate personal experiences, I try to remain as objective as possible, which is why my position is not without a mild auto-irony.