Interviewed in Ljubljana 13th August 2010

We have known Dominika for half our lives. At Ljubljana’s Faculty of Architecture she was conspicuous when we studied together with her hair coloured in bright hues which she frequently changed, her extravagantly unique and to the tiniest detail matched fashion combinations and jewellery – actually electric cables wrapped around her neck... Refined transformations... And Dominika’s architecture is the same – unique, explorative, inventive, distinct in expression, and precise in details. It is complex. It is architecture which informs about being a contemplated result of context, client’s desires, and the creativity of the architect. Batista’s houses, ambiences and elements – equipment, clothes, jewellery, architectural decor – are daring housing experiments that surpass boundaries and open new mental horizons. They surprise again and again.

ORIS: Architecture in a way mirrors its creator. Your modus vivendi is not entirely ordinary – you do not read newspapers, you do not inform yourself about the daily political news, but you travel a lot to deserts, you dance and have performances, you cook... you watch one film every day, you care about animals, you grow pot herbs and trim trees... all these we can read in your creations...

Batista: Some time ago, I consciously stopped reading newspapers and informing myself about daily political events. I did not like that déjà-vu moment. There was nothing new, nothing really big. As if the millennium had lost its drive. I had a habit of leafing through the newspapers during breakfast. Quickly, from the back to the front, merely topics I was interested in. Ten minutes for newspapers, I would read a chosen article when there was enough time to do that. In time I concluded that I was leafing through newspapers for thirty minutes during breakfast. I was diagonally looking at average and irrelevant things that had nothing to do with me whatsoever. And since I am aware, from my own experience, that the daily news is only half true, I made a break. I do not know how long it will last. I am an abstract person who needs a perception that is at a distance from everyday routine, averageness, triviality... On the contrary, nature and its patents, as well as dance, represent infinite inspiration for me.