Spirit above Waves
I work with disabled communities consistently for several years, to point out that even the handicapped can live a full life. The project Spirit above Waves, as a segment of a wider concept, shows disabled swimmers in a pool. Almost all people enjoy competing, because it belongs to our human nature, to our animalistic status. And the water is a prenatal liquid. Blurring the distinctions. Even allows three axes movement simultaneously, thus up and down. In water due to floating, humans levitate like birds.
Ten percent of total world population consists of people with some form of physical disability. In Central and Eastern Europe, living with a disability means overcoming many obstacles, including the barriers in the minds of people who are unexpectedly exposed to disability. One of the main reasons was the effort of communist regime in the former Eastern Soviet bloc to assimilate people with mental or physical disabilities, and to clean up and locked them to special care institutions, which only caused a deeper social exclusion. Thus the society was naturally full of prejudices against disability. Disabled disappeared out of sight and off the streets.
After the collapse of the socialist bloc and the fall of the Iron Curtain in autumn 1989, finally the newly formed democratic society became more open. The handicapped emerged in new hope. Arising newborn organizations now tries to minimize social isolation of people with a disabilities and activate disabled individuals in areas where they can succeed in a straight contest. The life with a disability can be just as intense as the lives of healthy people.
“If God enters into us like the light, why would a life with physical disabilities should necessarily be a life in the shadow? Imagine for a moment the world as an endless darkness, free-floating in a vacuum. Eyes that suddenly can not see. Limbs, which needless to move. Senses numb redundancy. All that ever mattered to us, is only one motion swept away forever. All physical ceases to exist, becomes unnecessary. And in this emptiness and transcendence at the same time we move the finger of left hand. We feel that a huge move, a chain reaction of all cells, fibers, energy force in the gushing one finger ... and ... happiness. And with that sense we can do absolutely everything. Barriers and walls are so high, as we build. These are the true heroes of today. Because only those who want to fight, win.”
