Lost Connection, Ostrava 2022

video, 6:44

The starting point for me was one of the consequences of the current violent Russian invasion in Ukraine. That consequence is the fact that Instagram is recognised as an extremist organisation in the Russian Federation. Thousands of users found out when the law came into force and began to say goodbye to their followers and the profiles they had built up over the years. I was interested in the way they wrote their last messages, hoping not to lose touch. But what does it mean for a user to say goodbye to their virtual form forever? Isn’t that a form of digital suicide? In the reality that is depicted in my project, there is nothing left but the photos that did not become Stories. The photos are burned where no one can see them, repeating an already real network algorithm in which this personal virtual image exists only for 24 hours. Behind the pretty picture is an irony in relation to users and algorithms that are capable of creating certain habits and lost routines.