In the exhibition Solastalgia¹, with a new series of works in the form of video installations, photographs, paintings, light boxes, and spatial installations, he addresses the influence of contemporary civilization on the life of humans and the nature with which they are inextricably linked. Solastalgia is a term that describes emotional or existential distress, sadness, psychological pain, and even anxiety experienced by people affected by environmental changes occurring in their immediate surroundings.
Individuals react painfully to the destruction of nature, climate change, intensive industrialization or urbanization, as well as the ineffective management of these resources by those responsible. They experience helplessness, insecurity, and anxiety due to the inability to change the unstoppable processes occurring in nature and face uncertainty about the changes that tomorrow will bring. This can have serious consequences on the mental health of people who are strongly connected to their environment.

Significant pollution and the disruption of natural balance began in the 19th century with the Industrial Revolution. It intensified in the 20th century, and in the 1950s a new geological epoch of the Earth called the Anthropocene began, following the 11,700-year-long Holocene. The Anthropocene is characterized by the dominance of human influence over natural processes. While the Earth's climate has changed throughout history, the current warming is happening at a pace unseen in the last 10,000 years.
The harmful impact is evident in scientifically established facts based on observations and research of natural phenomena: oceans are warming, the global temperature has risen by 1°C since the 19th century, polar ice sheets are melting, sea levels are rising, and snow cover is decreasing. Extreme weather events such as devastating tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, and droughts are becoming more frequent and severe.
If current trends continue, they will lead to social and economic disruptions, changes in ecosystems across the globe, and further loss of biodiversity through the extinction of individual plant and animal species. The consequences are immeasurable, and urgent global action is needed to mitigate the negative processes caused by human activity.

By using various media, Davor Mezak has created a unique audio-visual environment. The video installation is dramaturgically structured into two parts: the real (with objects taken from the immediate surroundings and a video of a flood recorded in 2023 in Karlovac County, caused by an extreme amount of rainfall) and the surreal, represented by a depiction of a post-landscape.
The video is composed through various methods of filming and post-production. He uses double exposure to achieve visual overlapping of recorded material, then time jumps, and the composition of different frame arrangements through inversion, where the ground appears both above and below, or even left and right, while the atmosphere (the sky) occupies an unusual, "unreal" place. In some frames, the sky is not visible at all because the inversion merges the depiction of the earth into a single unit.
A surreal and metaphysical atmosphere is created — a semblance of the fantastical — evoking a sense of unease and a disturbance of balance in the viewer by eliminating stable reference points. This discomfort is further emphasized by sound, making the observer feel insecurity, anxiety, and unease.
Through this, Mezak brings us closer to the emotional states experienced by individuals affected by solastalgia.

By intertwining the real and the surreal using contemporary media language, and by including inscriptions in light boxes about the alarming state of nature, Mezak sends a powerful message to individuals to change their irresponsible attitude towards nature and, at least partially, to halt the immeasurable consequences of climate change.

– Nataša Ivančević

¹Solastalgia is a neologism, a word formed by combining the Latin word sōlācium and the Greek root -algia. It was coined in 2005 by philosopher Glenn Albrecht to describe the anxiety caused in humans by global climate change, natural disasters, and the excessive exploitation of natural resources.