In 2022 my family moved to Cyprus. When we moved, we took away something dear to our hearts, and yet we left a lot behind: our home, the opportunity to see our family and friends, our favorite places and some memories. I perceive this experience as an irreplaceable personal loss, which I cannot "grieve" openly due to ethical norms, because my loss is ephemeral - I am not a refugee or a forced migrant and my emigration is a conscious decision of my family.
This kind of loss is defined by Professor Kenneth Doka as " disempowered grief," that is, "grief experienced when the loss cannot be openly expressed, publicly mourned, or accepted by society."
Using dried plants as an allegory of connection to the past, I am gradually working my way step by step through the stages of grieving and accepting my loss.
In the work "«Burial shroud»" I am "weaving" a funeral blanket for the past. All the plants were collected in Cyprus, a place that welcomed us and gave us that illusory feeling of "home". But like the shroud of the ingenious Penelope in Homer's Odyssey, my work is a work in progress and will only be finished when I feel I have found home again.
