OBLIVION (Serbia / India, 2006-2007)

Oblivion comprises portraits of Orthodox Serbian monks and of nagas from India. The monks reside in a small, poor monastery near the border with Kosovo. During or after the war in what used to be Yugoslavia, they exchanged their normal lives for an ascetic existence in the service of God. The nagas are a radical Indian equivalent of monks, anciently founded to protect Hinduism, by violence if necessary. They smear their bodies with ash, smoke hashish and wear their hair long in honor of the god Shiva, whose flowing hair is reputed to possess preternatural powers. Fernando Moleres photographed the monks and nagas in their search for spiritual peace by means of meditation and prayer.