RE|FRACTION
RE|FRACTION explores the relationship between perception and reality through water as a lens. Using water as an optical medium, I photograph familiar landscapes and everyday scenes, allowing lines to dissolve, forms to overlap, and stable structures to become fluid. Developed during my artistic residency at Atelier-Stiftung Kunst und Natur (Bispingen, Germany), the project investigates how perception shifts according to the way we look.
Each scene unfolds in three representations: the original observation, the photograph created through water as a refractive lens, and the watercolor reinterpretation. Through color, gesture, and memory, the painting transforms the observed landscape into a new visual experience. Water remains present throughout the process as lens, subject, and medium.
RE|FRACTION embraces distortion as a way of revealing how reality shifts according to the way we look. The project suggests that multiple realities can coexist and be equally valid. The transparency and fluidity of watercolor extend the optical phenomena while introducing artistic interpretation, reminding us that perception is never singular but always filtered through the lens we choose.
Artist's Statement
The residency at the Atelier-Stiftung Kunst und Natur was an excellent experience, both artistically and through living and working in such a special place.
The farm offers a remarkable calm and beauty that makes a true immersion possible: in the surroundings and in one's own work. I was also impressed by the generous studio space and the very well equipped living quarters, which together provide excellent conditions for artistic work and for everyday life. Dr. Birgit and Thomas gave every support that was needed while at the same time leaving us the freedom to develop our projects in our own way and at our own pace.
My project, Re|Fraction, found an ideal environment for its development here. The surrounding nature offered perfect places for the photographic part of the work, while the time, the silence and the space allowed me to carry out my experiments with the necessary concentration and to develop the final watercolours. It was especially rewarding to see the project completed and presented in a final exhibition at the end of the residency.
As part of a group of three artists, many spontaneous encounters also arose, from shared meals to conversations about our working processes. It is a residency that truly offers a perfect space for concentration, experimentation and artistic development, surrounded by nature and held by a thoughtful, well-structured setting.
- Mirela Fioresy
