Personal autonomy is the ability to make decisions for oneself and carry out one’s life, often regardless of specific moral content. But how can we judge whether our decisions are always correct? My photographs capture the ever-changing nature of my relationship with my daughter and my family, framed by cyclical returns to my own childhood. One of my childhood memories is about surviving during the attempted August Coup (Avgustovskiy Perevorot) in Moscow in 1991 with my family. We were constantly watching state TV, where the ballet »Swan Lake« was played on a loop. While the aim was perhaps to distract and calm the viewers, the ballet was deeply associated with political instability, leaving a lasting impression on my understanding of home and security.Hence, my work is deeply rooted in childhood flashbacks and experiences of living abroad with my parents. It explores themes of identity and the concept of »home« by confronting unprocessed moments of personal, family, and collective memory. Drawing from my family’s surroundings and the socio-political situations of both past and present, my work raises profound questions about the interplay between memory and identity.

Lenka L. Lukačovičová (*1987, Bratislava, SVK) completed her studies at the Department of Photography and New Media at the University of Fine Arts in Bratislava, where she currently lives and works. She exhibited in major galleries in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and participated in many foreign art festivals such as ‘Rotlicht, OffGrid, OFF Festival, Poznan Photo Diploma’. In 2022 she won the ‘NOVUM Foundation’ prize and was the third place award winner in ‘Different Worlds 2021 Exhibition for Young Photographers’. In her work, she deals with themes whose starting points and solutions are extremely fluid and changeable. She layers them and deals precisely and vigorously not only with the selection of the topic but also with the materials and techniques she works with. She mainly concentrates on the installation of photographs and objects in such a way that they support the main idea of the project.

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