My grandfather Igor, who unfortunately I did not have a chance to see, was in Chernobyl in 1986 as an engineer and liquidator of the accident. After receiving large doses of radiation, he died of blood cancer, leaving my grandmother Mila alone in a one-room apartment quartet, which was received as a reward for my grandfather’s work. My grandmother, however, had two close friends Valya and Ira, who worked together with Mila and Igor in the same RosAtom Ministry and who also connected their fate to tragedy. In Chernobyl, Valya worked for three months as a secretary, Ira went with her husband only for a few weeks. All three women in the result received the status of "Chernobyl Widows", irreparable health consequences, painful memories.
The accident at the Chernobyl NPP is a disease that has poisoned entire generations. The people who lived through all this horror, who took part in the liquidation, who saw everything in real life, have been forgotten and abandoned like blunders in history. All experienced memories have been incorporated into their way of life, into their typical one-room apartments. This work explores the intersection of present and past, the indistinguishable consequences of the catastrophe and the permanence of the place.
The installation is an image of a typical Khrushchev apartment in which Ira, Mila and Valya still live. Each heroine has her own room, which represents her perceptions of the past and today.
My grandfather Igor, who unfortunately I did not have a chance to see, was in Chernobyl in 1986 as an engineer and liquidator of the accident. After receiving large doses of radiation, he died of blood cancer, leaving my grandmother Mila alone in a one-room apartment quartet, which was received as a reward for my grandfather’s work. My grandmother, however, had two close friends Valya and Ira, who worked together with Mila and Igor in the same RosAtom Ministry and who also connected their fate to tragedy. In Chernobyl, Valya worked for three months as a secretary, Ira went with her husband only for a few weeks. All three women in the result received the status of "Chernobyl Widows", irreparable health consequences, painful memories.
The accident at the Chernobyl NPP is a disease that has poisoned entire generations. The people who lived through all this horror, who took part in the liquidation, who saw everything in real life, have been forgotten and abandoned like blunders in history. All experienced memories have been incorporated into their way of life, into their typical one-room apartments. This work explores the intersection of present and past, the indistinguishable consequences of the catastrophe and the permanence of the place.
The installation is an image of a typical Khrushchev apartment in which Ira, Mila and Valya still live. Each heroine has her own room, which represents her perceptions of the past and today.
I wish I could hide
2024
150 x 255 cm, 20 x 20 cm, 20 x 30 cm, 20 x 45 cm, 25 x 40 cm
Screenprint on fabrics, displays, video loop. Sound by Evgenii Kolomenskii.
Graduation Project, MFA in Time-Based Media at HFBK Hamburg in 2024
The catastrophes have neither beginning nor end, their consequences cannot be eliminated, and they seem to be threats forever. Home becomes a fragile matter surrounded by catastrophes, capable of losing its original form and its residents. I often remember the quote from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer: «We need much bigger pockets,» I thought as I lay in bed and counted down the seven minutes it takes for the average person to fall asleep. «We need huge pockets, pockets big enough for our families, our friends, and even people who aren’t on our lists, people we’ve never met but want to protect anyway. We need pockets for neighborhoods and cities, a pocket where the whole universe could fit.»
I wish I had a pocket like that too.
Small displays, video loops, family and public archive.
3 branches of 12, 10 and 5 screens each.
Chronicles of everyday life mixed with chronicles of disasters such as:
Chernobyl disaster, war in Chechnya, terrorist attacks in Beslan and Nord Ost, funerals of Politkovskaya and Nemtsov, War in Ukraine.
The videos are taken from news channels, youtube, edited by the author. Chronicle of everyday life filmed by the author.
