Your work is deeply personal. How did this style of performance develop for you? Were there mentors who shaped it? How did your mode of expression evolve, and what does your process look like from the initial idea to the finished performance?

Art, at its core, is personal. It is an expression of an artist’s thoughts, experiences, individuality, philosophy which resonates with viewers on an emotional and intellectual level. Let me share some thoughts by Anselm Kiefer: “An artist does not creat ex nihilo. He is in a stream. He sits there but things go through him. He is pierced by thoughts, by movements.”  I will go a little further and say that I am one with that stream which contains the past, present and future of my life, country, and this world. And I am pierced by so many thoughts, and so many uncountable movements.

My art practice was born out of necessity. Byung-Chul Han wrote in The Burnout Society how  in the 20th century we lived in a disciplinary society, and in the 21st century, we live in an achievement society. We have moved from being obedience subjects to achievement subjects. What has remained consistent is the pressure to produce more. What has changed is the language. Instead of being subjected to an order that we should do something, we are being subjected to an imperative that we can do something. In our constant drive for achieving anything we can do, we get sick and burnt out. What we have lost in this process is a connection with our inner self and with each other. An achievement society is a narcissistic one, hence the loss of communities. And my art practice is bringing back that connection with our inner self and others.

The body as a vessel of truth. The body through which the pain of life is bursting out. The body that keeps the score. Generational traumas are locked deep inside of our bodies. We don’t have to live like this; conditioned by our society. There are other ways to conduct ourselves, to apprehend the world around and inside of us. The answer hides deep inside of us, we just have to reach deep within and answer to our primordial “I” call. When I’m performing my rituals, I am bringing the rite of passage and closure back to life. We all carry generational traumas, because closure never happened. In order for us to restore our world we need to reach that closure, and it’s not going to happen if we are not willing to reach into that inner dark parts of our being and bring unconscious to conscious. During my rituals I am becoming that binding, connecting the narrative of the truth. My flesh is your flesh. Your flesh is my flesh. We are all connected. We are all One.

From day one when I started performing, I made it clear that I am performing rituals meaning I am a ritual artist. Each of my rituals were born out of specific inner call. A call for a collective healing which we need as a society. I do lots of meditative sketches, movement practices and meditations. As a ritual artist I use my body as a healing tool, performing transformative public rituals by exploring outer boundaries of pain which my body can endure and because of it my rituals are performed in a highly controlled environment (mentally and physically). During the ritual my movements always change because I am allowing my inner self to be a guide during the public rituals.

Please talk about your most recent performance experience.

Last two years I’ve been working on the Narikača (the keening woman) project. The keening woman is known by many names in different cultures around the globe. She acts as a bridge between living and death, between present and past. The keening woman’s practice was an essential part of society guiding the community to navigate the profound upheaval of a death. For this project I am keening for all the children killed in wars throughout history. Every war is a war against children, and as an artist I can’t stay silent by the fact that children are being killed on a daily basis in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Congo, Ethiopia… 468 million children globally are living with the effects of war and conflict, according to new research by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and Save the Children. Never again means Never again for everyone. Not a single child should live in a constant fear for their lives, and  having their human rights violated. War will end, but after war the mental health of all children who survive the war will not be prioritised (trust me, I’ve been there). How many times do we have to fight between each other to learn that otherness should draw us closer to each other and not divide? Humanity against humanity for the sake of humanity. For what? Lines on the maps? Money? Power? When will we learn to just to live in peace with each other?

Love is an active choice we make and not a feeling. Let that sink in. Choose love. Choose to love your fellow. Over 50,000 children killed in Gaza. There can never be any justification for killing children. The situation in Gaza is monstrous, a blight, a dark spot on our contemporary society. Art is political, and it always should be. If I choose to stay silent, stones will start screaming instead of me. As someone who experienced war as a child, watched my little friends being blown up by a grenade, I saw that horror, felt it on my skin, and not a single child should ever experience that in their life. They should never be in a constant fear not just for their own lives, but for their family too. Those killed children will never fall in love for the first time, they will never experience peace, see their family smiling instead of crying. We should be ashamed.

The keening woman stands in her liminal space, between the worlds, behind and next to her are standing all the women who mourned before her, each of them are mourning through thousands of generations. She stands in her anger, in her pain. She wails for all the mothers, all the fathers, for all the injustice done for the children. She screams, she roars, she bleeds in despair calling out for help while holding on the hope that love will prevail.

How long does it take to prepare for performance? What is the process of recovery and aftercare?

Sometimes I need months for preparation. It all starts with an idea, a need that started pulsating in my body and it wants to get out. Guy Debord wrote how the reigning economic system is a vicious cycle of isolation. We all stand alone in our pain. My art practice is trying to bring community back, to wake up not to the world but to yourself. Living beneath the skin of society, such a body sheds the clothes of convention and social construction. This is the boundless body beyond rationalization, not accounted for in Western philosophy. How do you erase your body and then draw it newly all over again?

Antonin Artaud said that in our present state of degeneration, it is through the skin that metaphysics must be made to re-enter our minds. We should not flee from our pain, but stand in its power. Our bodily wounds eventually close and heal, but there are always hidden wounds, those of the heart. One needs to learn how to embrace them and then one will discover that fields of pain blossom with endless flowers of joy. All my rituals are bringing to life a revelation that by embracing the pain one is embracing the joy of life also.

During my rituals, I am exploring the boundaries of bodily pain. Self-care after my rituals is very important. I need to take care of my inner and outer body, to take time to process what I took and transmuted from the audience during the ritual while taking care of my physical body. Usually I go into nature and connect with the wind, sea, air, tree, and soil under my feet. Nature is a sanctuary of peace, solace and stillness. It silently whispers to my soul “Life is a gift. Breathe and just be. You are right where you are supposed to be.”

What do you see/feel when you are in a trance state?

I look at my life as being a historical fragment of all my ancestors. There were so many synchronicities when I was doing my family tree. For example my grandfather had died on the same date my twin and I were born, twenty five years earlier. All women from my grandfather’s side were raped and abused by men. Their imprint runs within me. During my rituals I reach the state when I see and communicate with them or I communicate with them through my dreams. A recurring vision during my rituals is a red eagle landing on my shoulder.

Ancestors are much more than my family history. It is the history of a community, one country, ultimately of the world. I deeply believe that we are all connected. Our contemporary society is pushing individualism while individuals are suffering. In nature everything is connected. We have a capacity not only to heal ourselves but our planet too. The One contains the Many, and the Many contains the One. Without the One there is not the Many, and without the Many there is no One. My ancestors were in tune not just with each other but with nature too, and I carry their stories with me. They all remind me to shed the skin of my old self on a daily basis. Yes, on a daily basis. To become whole again is a process, and not a destination. Oh, what a joy it is to be awakened.