The idea for RED: Corpo-Reality had been with me since around 2018. It existed as a thought long before it became a series of works, but I kept postponing it, believing I needed the right moment to begin. Looking back, I think I was simply waiting until I fully understood what I wanted to say.
Art
The project originally began with a news article reporting that scientists had discovered microplastics in human blood. That fact stayed with me because it completely changed the way I thought about plastic. It was no longer just an industrial material or an environmental problem. It had already become part of us. Around the same time I found myself thinking about everyday waste and how discarded materials could become part of installation art. Instead of seeing them as rubbish, I began seeing them as evidence of our time.
The first work of the series came almost unexpectedly. I had an older painting that no longer satisfied me, and rather than abandoning it, I decided to transform it. I took a sheet of protective plastic that had been covered with red paint and fused it directly onto the canvas using fire. After placing the work inside a frame, I realised that the plastic no longer behaved like an industrial material. It had become another surface, another layer that completely changed the painting. That was the moment Corpo-Reality was born, and it was also when the word RED entered the title. It was never simply about the colour red, but about the relationship between living matter and synthetic material.
The first work of the series came almost unexpectedly. I had an older painting that no longer satisfied me, and rather than abandoning it, I decided to transform it. I took a sheet of protective plastic that had been covered with red paint and fused it directly onto the canvas using fire. After placing the work inside a frame, I realised that the plastic no longer behaved like an industrial material. It had become another surface, another layer that completely changed the painting. That was the moment Corpo-Reality was born, and it was also when the word RED entered the title. It was never simply about the colour red, but about the relationship between living matter and synthetic material.
Another work, Caesura, combined metal rods, wooden elements, stretched steel mesh and plastic into a single composition. The mesh casts shadows across the surface, creating an effect that reminded me of radiation—something invisible that can only be perceived through its consequences. The materials themselves became as important as the painted surface.
Other works continued this dialogue by combining rope, flowers, metal, wood and found objects. Each material carried its own history before entering the work, and together they became part of a new visual language.
Although the series is often associated with the human body, my own understanding of corporeality is much broader. I don't believe that only people possess a body. Landscapes have bodies. Oceans have bodies. Mountains have bodies. Cities have bodies. This idea had already appeared in my earlier series Nude Landscapes, where I explored nature as something physical rather than simply something to be observed. Corpo-Reality became a continuation of that philosophy through painting, sculpture and installation.
The project truly began to develop after a conversation with my friend Vadim in Paphos. While explaining the concept to him, I realised I was no longer describing a single artwork but an entire exhibition. That conversation became the turning point that finally pushed me to begin creating the series.
The first exhibition introduced works that explored this idea from different perspectives. Medico Dela Pesto incorporated an original children's gas mask brought from Chernobyl. Rather than presenting it as a historical artifact, I wanted it to speak about how catastrophe leaves physical traces that remain part of everyday life long after history moves on.
The project truly began to develop after a conversation with my friend Vadim in Paphos. While explaining the concept to him, I realised I was no longer describing a single artwork but an entire exhibition. That conversation became the turning point that finally pushed me to begin creating the series.
The first exhibition introduced works that explored this idea from different perspectives. Medico Dela Pesto incorporated an original children's gas mask brought from Chernobyl. Rather than presenting it as a historical artifact, I wanted it to speak about how catastrophe leaves physical traces that remain part of everyday life long after history moves on.
Looking back, I no longer think of RED: Corpo-Reality as a series about plastic. It became a way of understanding how ordinary materials preserve memory, history and presence. It was also the project that changed the way I work. Until then I mostly thought as a painter. Corpo-Reality allowed me to stop separating painting, sculpture and installation into different disciplines. Today I see them as different ways of expressing the same idea. For me, the medium is no longer the starting point. The idea is.
Corpo-Reality
RED: Corpo-Reality (2023)
RED: Corpo-Reality (2023)
Medico Dela Pesto
RED: Corpo-Reality, 2025
RED: Corpo-Reality, 2025
Lifeline
RED: Corpo-Reality, 2025
RED: Corpo-Reality, 2025
