'El-en-i' is a performance in which Tabar inserts a catheter into his heart until it starts to fibrillate, which proves that a tiny line between life and death has been reached. Ive Tabar developed his artistic language (idiolect) in a truly unique way. Considering that he does not have an academic background, it can be said that his artistic discourse emerged from practice - his dexterity in the handling of materials and tools. Ive is a male nurse at the intensive care unit of the Izola Hospital, where he constantly faces situations where the boundary between life and death is barely perceptible, and this is the quintessence of his artistic exploration. In his performances Ive uses medical knowledge and tools in an explicit and extreme artistic expression to underline the poignancy of the content or narrative. He has complete mastery of the medical tools that he works with and of his body, which he uses in and for performances, so medical expertise is never a concern. Ive’s performances are either politically charged or more intimate. In any case their difficult aesthetic demands a keen sense of the medical environment (the artist’s professional background) and an understanding of the depersonalised emotions of doctors, who are required by medical ethics to sideline empathy to the patient in order to keep a steady hand.
