Personal encounters for two: Lives of Others | 2022 – …

Personal encounters for two: Lives of Others is a creative-educational project in the form of a one-month personal performance in an autonomous space, arranged for this purpose, to meet only one person a day, in which I challenge a personal perception of the world through themes of protection and conservation of Nature and Other nonhuman beings with whom we share the Earth. The project is open for one person a day – co-creator of the work, during the office hours of the temporary art office. A person can bring his / her pet, their dear Other nonhuman, if that does not present stress for the – dogs, plants, stone, leaf, flower,… Meetings are arranged in advance with interested persons, regardless of their occupation where a meeting/conversation/education is related to their understanding and experience of a relationship with Others – nature, nonhuman, plants, animals. Meetings are a safe space and time for the exchange and intimate contact, for sharing experiences, knowledge, questions, bits of advice, storytelling, or drawing your own story. Collected content, interviews, audio and video recordings, other materials with the consent of the participants are used to model further work, which will be available on the website www.ivanafilip.com i YouTube channel. With coronavirus which was thought to have passed from a bat to a human, began a crisis that tests human’s relationship to the nature we are a part of, even though we treat her as an object, object of trade, something less important. However, this project focuses on personal contact between the artist and the participant thus depicting a personal relationship of a participant towards nature, animals, plants, mostly invisible and innumerable. It collects personal stories, emotions, honesty, but possibly answer questions. I am convinced that each person has stored in their memory, such an encounter, cathartic, ephemeral, magical, or just different, special. It is by evoking such experiences that we create and tell new stories for ourselves for the good of all. During the project, our office is located in the creative space PROSTOR in cooperation with the creative platform Culture Hub Croatia (CHC) in Split. The project started in 2022 was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia. In 2024 project continued with two short residencies, in Gallery Kamba in Zagreb and Museum of Fine Arts in Split.