video installation, 2 channel video and sound, 7’02”
In my language, Destnuej means purification, to cleanse the body from all sins. When I was a boy, water for daily use was extracted from wells for drinking, cooking, and washing. Long ago the water from the wells was clear and pure, but already at that time, however, things had changed: my friends who lived in the same area suffered from illnesses linked to contaminated water.
My nephew contracted malaria and died. Since then, a lot has changed the wells no longer exist. Like in most places they were replaced by acqueducts but the problems persist. Residues of every shape and substance are poured incessantly into the water, poisoning rivers and oceans. Toxic waste, nuclear waste, chemicals, and multiply inexorably seeping into groundwater. Slowly, day after day, they enter into our bodies. For these reasons, the water is no longer pure. Drinking, cooking, washing. Purifying. Purification is an ancient ritual, disseminated in the four corners of the world.The man who always drinks this water is contaminates his own body. The man who uses it to purify himself contaminates himself. My work is based on and motivated by these themes, which are also linked to the general degradation man causes to the environment around us.
