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Judith
Judith from the myth of the “Book of Judith,” but in this image she beheads not Holofernes to save her people, but herself, representing a state with an oligarchic system of power that has severed the head of “statehood” from the body as an image of the “people.” This speaks to the state’s isolation from its people, the absence of this contact, or its artificiality.
Stefan Stoikov is a Ukrainian artist, was born in 1997 in Izmail, Odesa region. In his practice, the artist turns to images from various historical epochs, reinterpreting them through a contemporary context. Combining mythological motifs, cultural allusions, and visual elements of mass culture, Stefan creates multilayered compositions in which classical subjects coexist with modern forms of perception. The artist’s main themes are mythology, historical memory, cultural allusions, human solitude, and the interaction between classical art and contemporary visual culture.
