Anna Guseva - Absentia/presentia
Absentia/presentia is a visual and personal reflection on the search for spirituality in the everyday. The artist’s early experience with faith was shaped by formality rather than conviction. Baptised into the Orthodox Church at four, religious life took the form of painted Easter eggs, a cross worn around the neck, and simple prayers to a distant figure imagined more as a magician than a deity.
This quiet, inherited belief began to unravel after the loss of loved ones. First came the death of the artist’s grandfather, then, at nineteen, their mother. In those moments, the promise of an afterlife no longer felt real. Without it, the foundation of belief collapsed.
Following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the question of divine presence re-emerged. If God existed, how could such violence and suffering take place? A visit to a Catholic church intensified this reflection. Inside, religious sculptures had been covered, and their absence felt oddly unsettling. This discomfort, in contrast to a self-declared atheism, suggested that belief might still linger beneath the surface.
The project explores this tension not through doctrine but through intuitive symbols, everyday details, and a search for inner unity. It turns away from fear and obligation, toward the quiet possibility that the essence of faith lies in harmony, presence, and questioning.