"Natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted, and synthetic happiness is what we make when we don't get what we wanted." Daniel Todd Gilbert

Why did Hanna, looking at her series of photographs, began wondering about the natural – synthetic dichotomy and, further, why did she attached this division to the entity of happiness?

Photographs were done while on the road, spontaneously. The artistic vision, which Hanna co-designed alongside others, was present, yet open-ended. That is when that current appeared. The one that springs from somewhere and just guides you. As if the atmosphere began building itself and continuously opening the space. When the vibration, intuition, and the subconsciousness of those present connect and the artistic process is born.

Perhaps Hanna associated her feeling of uncertainness, before this current appeared, with Gilbert’s concept of synthetic happiness, as she was forced to give meaning and accept the given state, alongside her waiting and looking for something new.

Yet, she might have understood the psychologist’s dichotomy, which “came into her hands” when she was already looking back towards the passing day, and realised the difference. The difference in the feeling before the current and within the current, the difference between synthetic and natural happiness. 

—Petra Radoja, curator