Melih Nehad – “I Am From There When I Am Here” – Augmented Reality and 3D Sculpture in Urban Space

May 16 – June 15, 2026

Opening: May 16, 2026, 6:00 PM

Svoboda Square

“I Am From There When I Am Here” explores hybrid identity as a living, dynamic condition between cultures, languages, and historical layers. The project originates from the artist’s personal experience of moving between Bulgarian and Turkish cultural contexts and transforms this movement into an artistic position — not as a rupture, but as coexistence.

At the core of the work lies the idea that identity is not a fixed belonging, but a process of continuous reconfiguration. Rather than choosing between “here” and “there,” the project proposes a third space — a place of overlap, where different cultural codes do not exclude one another but are layered and mutually transformed.

Through the use of augmented reality and a 3D sculptural representation of the body, the project turns personal identity into a digital and visual field. Textures derived from traditional Bulgarian and Turkish motifs are layered onto the body, rewriting its surface as a cultural archive. In this way, ornament ceases to function as a marker of singular belonging and becomes a language of coexistence.

The pose of the figure — at once tense and balanced — operates as a metaphor for a bridge. It does not divide spaces, but connects them, with the body itself becoming the site of their encounter.

The project proposes identity not as a boundary, but as a field of interaction. Instead of seeking a fixed definition, it foregrounds the possibility of existing in in-betweenness — as an active, conscious, and resilient mode of presence.