Pandora’s Box 

Conceptual object, 2022 

Materials: Caucasian oak, mirror, glass, LEDs, battery, music box 

This object was created to bring back hope. It was invented during the artist’s deep escapism associated with experiencing disasters on different levels: from personal to global. The project is the embodiment of will and perseverance in accepting events that cannot be influenced.  

The key to this work lies in the ancient myth about Pandora.

According to legend, Prometheus taught people arts and crafts, and he has stolen Olympic fire for them, for which Zeus was angry with him and severely punished him. But the wrath of the god also fell on people. Zeus ask the gods to create a perfect woman, the gods bestow her various gifts and named her Pandora. Zeus proposed Pandora as a wife to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. With the wife, in his house appeared a vessel inside that Zeus has hid all troubles and misfortunes of man. One day, Pandora opened the vessel, and at that moment all wars, diseases and other evil spreaded around the world. Pandora got scared and slammed the lid of the vessel, but at the bottom there was only one essence left — hope. 

Many times later, Pandora’s box will be opened again to bring hope back to the world. 

Music inside the box: Hisaishi Joe, Nausicaa Requiem from “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” dir. Hayao Miyazaki.