is a work inspired by Marya Schechtman’s narrative theory  of identity, reflecting on the idea of “ruins” as a metaphor for  the experience of selfhood and self-awareness. This composition  explores the moment in which identity no longer functions as  a coherent narrative and instead reveals itself as a fragmented  structure composed of disconnected elements.  

At the core of the composition’s concept lies the temporal paradox of ruins. By definition, ruins simultaneously suggest both  persistence and absence. Something has endured, yet no longer  in the form in which it once existed. In relation to identity, this  suggests that even as the sense of self becomes fragmented, it is  never fully erased. Habits, language, modes of communication,  and emotional reflexes remain. Yet they undergo disintegration as  a coherent system of reference. What disappears is not the content  of experience itself, but rather its organizing principle—the sense  that all these elements belong to one stable and integrated “self.” The work therefore treats the “ruins of identity” as an intermediate state between presence and absence, in which identity is not  invalidated, but persists in a dispersed form that requires new  reading and interpretation.  

Aleksandra Słyż