Nikola Ivanov's artistic practice focuses primarily on various forms of static and dynamic technical images, concentrating thematically on issues related to the phenomenon of temporality, historical memory, and biopolitics. He often draws inspiration from historical cultural manifestations, such as significant works of art or the findings of contemporary social science research.

In the exhibition project PHILOSOPHICAL CONGRESS 1973, prepared for the House of Arts in Ústí nad Labem, the author draws inspiration from the now legendary speech by Czech philosopher Jan Patočka at the 15th International Philosophical Congress in Varna in 1973. Patočka, who did not receive official permission from the Czechoslovak authorities to participate in this congress, traveled to Bulgaria privately and, as a member of the International Philosophical Society, attempted to deliver a presentation there. In it, he focused on issues related to the danger of science becoming a mere tool of technology and the fact that a society based on technical development and functioning loses its sense of human freedom, responsibility, and ability to ask fundamental questions. His speech was interrupted, not included in the proceedings, and marked the beginning of a ban on his publishing and travel activities. This was one of the manifestations of the so-called normalization processes through which the communist regime re-established its power after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968 and suppressed expressions of freedom and plurality at various levels of society. After this intervention by the communist regime against freedom of thought and public discussion, Patočka continued his unofficial philosophical and lecturing activities in the form of apartment seminars, and in 1977 he became one of the first three spokesmen for Charter 77, which criticized the Czechoslovak communist regime for failing to respect human and civil rights, to which it had committed itself at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in Helsinki.