Overview
Artificial Tears - I don't exist
Evelyn Bencicova is a visual storyteller who has not only committed herself to the genre of photography, but also works with new media such as video and virtual reality.
Her often theatrical stage designs are fascinating, some of them are inspired by surrealist film directors or by the general absurdity and beauty of life. She takes the viewer into her visual world, where she blurs the boundaries between memory, fantasy and imagination. She describes these composed narrative scenarios as "fictions based on truths".
People and objects are embedded in symbolic environments. The aesthetic composition first attracts the viewer's attention and in the next moment refers to the actual concept of the respective series. By placing her protagonists in strange-looking places, such as sterile sanatoriums or schoolrooms threatened by decay or former socialist administrative buildings with their massive, brutalist structure she explores the relationship between people and architecture. Every seemingly incidental object or detail in her images has been deliberately staged and is significant.
Past and present, reality and personal memories of Evelyn, who was born in Bratislava in 1992 and grew up in the post-socialist state, merge in her series.
"The architecture reflects the regime, the people in it are part of the system, which only works as long as it holds together. All the body shapes in the project form a coherent geometric composition. The people in it form a pattern. Everyone is stripped of their individuality to become a unified form and create a society where every difference is an anomaly in the system," describes Evelyn Bencicova.
The series Alice, a kind of self-portrait, was photographed in a rehabilitation center of a psychiatric hospital, where the main character finds herself in a perfectly sterile, "beautiful“ and clean world. The visuals initially draw attention in Evelyn's work, but the real meaning is hidden in the subtle gestures or smaller details. These are clues to tensions lurking behind the calm facade, cracks on an otherwise perfect surface. Perfection as illusion is the leitmotif of both the Alice and Artificial Tears series.
The main character in Artificial Tears takes on a classic female appearance based on stereotype and perfection. This idea came about in response to the question: What is the difference between human and machine? Thinking is replaced by imitation and intelligence by functionality. A world where one strives for perfection as efficiency and where there is no room for uncertainty, dependence or ambiguity.
For her compositions, Evelyn is guided by many sources of inspiration and is particularly influenced by places or landscapes that capture the imagination. Her motivation is her curiosity and desire to learn more about the world, about herself and others.
Evelyn's subtly disturbing and unique visual language allows the viewer to intensely engage with her content, which goes far beyond what it reveals at first glance.
Evelyn Bencicova (born 1992 in Bratislava) is a visual artist specializing in photography and artistic design. Based on her studies in fine arts and new media (University of Applied Arts, Vienna), Evelyn combines her interest in contemporary culture with academic research to create a unique aesthetic space where the conceptual meets the visual.
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