Street Fighters

The installation consists of several pieces - robots which were created out of the decorative elements of turn-of-the-century building façades. We've seen robots in cartoons, films, video games, but in my work, this pop culture figure is united with the architecture. We can often feel angels, female faces, lions, etc., observing us from the façades of buildings, and these become the faces of my robots. My figure’s facial features are not typically “robot-like" - it's what we can see on the buildings. The figure has a humanoid face and a familiar, typically geometric, robot physique.

The beauty of turn-of-the-century architecture is still powerful today. It defines street views, and emblematic buildings come from an innovative era as the results of the Industrial Revolution. This era resembles our digital/virtual revolution, in which robots and automation play an important role. While the Transformers robots we know from toys and cartoons transform from cars into robots, my robots are made from elements of buildings. They can protect buildings from destruction, which is why I've given them the name “Street Fighter”. This also aims to protect the era and its values, uniting these with the progressive values that transgress the ages.

My approach to the past and tradition is complex. At times I treat them with melancholy by projecting utopian views of the past, the “good old days.” Anachronisms can also be found in my work. They are present with a copious amounts of cynicism, as they may also comment on the naivety of the times gone by.