Ideas

Culture is comprised of infinite number of units. It is also extremely unique and personal to oneself.

“The form of space – time in which we live, move and have our experience, is itself shaped by the way in which we live, move and have our experiential being, and this our mode of living is called culture in all its historical depths and regional riches.” Consequently, culture is what developed over period of time, thus history is key in creating it. Culture is a personal place, complex, space where your own experiences coexist and interfere, adding up to your persona.”

Being mixed (my mother is Belarusian, my father’s ancestors are Mongolian), having Slavonic and Asian background, being brought up in an international environment thanks to my parents sending me to international camps, language schools in England , thus growing up with French, Italian, Spanish, German, Chinese, Korean, Singaporean peers and the list goes on and on ,affected me, as I was soaking traditions and habits of other cultures, I found myself not fitting into any and feeling lost. As I was mulling over my persona being lost in this world, I came to the conclusion that culture is not necessary identified by the place you live in but by everything you encounter and take in as this is what shapes ones culture.

But identifying those factors seems to be tricky, as it is not on the surface but within. In order tap into that hidden reality, unconsciousness and subconsciousness should be explored, thus can be shown through dreams.

Firstly, I decided to analyse two strong opposite sides within me : the Mongolian side-historically having nomadic nature and the Slavonic one-having that tendency to settle down.

Mongolian side being represented by a send clock (constantly moving), whereas Slavonic side being represented by a classical wall clock (conservative, attached to a certain place). Those two clocks are placed in a room on opposite side of the bed, the character enters the room and lies down, once the person is asleep, the rest of the screens turn on showing other experiences of mine through symbolism, all being opposed to each other as it feels to be my state of existence , than line between contrasting things.

The next screen will have another video with two moving images of lips with red lipstick on, that stand for brightness , as red lipstick is seen as almost something unacceptable in Belarusian environment where modesty is prominent, but I started to gravitate towards that obsession with vivid colours and freedom of expression that my Spanish and Italian friends had, which helped me get over that frustration with standing out that was so deeply embedded into Post Soviet Union cultures. So the first red lips will be sending a kiss (stands for appreciation), the other ones will have a finger with a ring (for obedience) on it sort of saying to be quite, as if saying to avoid it, to be ashamed of it.

Secondly, the number 13, representing Luck in some Asian cultures, and bad luck in Slavonic.

So the next screen is ground with 13 pence on one side heads up and 13 pence on another tails up.

Thirdly, red which interestingly as a colour has the same meaning in both Slavonic and Mongolian cultures, meaning fire, prosperity, beauty. But the languages are different. So two words meaning red in both languages  written on a screen.

All the screen placed on the walls , circular shaped room, so that there is no end or beginning , all the videos are on while the person in the first one is asleep and they all turn off once the person is awake.