Starting from an ancient Zen koan „What did my face look like before my parents were born?” in this work I’m collecting different perspectives and perceptions of myself in order to re-examine how we identify ourselves with certain things such as given name or inherited features and behaviour, but also how others define us.
The work consists of several parts which are then put into a dialogue in order to generate different meanings. The central part of the work is a handmade memory quilt traditionally made as memorabilia of family history. By using my childhood clothes and archival family photographs I hand sew the quilt for several months.
In essence a self-portrait, this work is a meditation on the question in the title. Even though the answer could not be found, the focus becomes the search itself.

The work was made during PARALLEL – European Photo Based Platform.