The documentary art project “At the Still Point of the Turning World” is a photo diary, a collection of film camera photos, texts and embroideries on paper reflecting the layering of complex feelings and memories of the author- me in my new temporary role as a refugee. This is an attempt to capture the moment of a shock of the beginning of a full-scale war, which changed the fate of millions of people and my own life, the moment that from a short flash turned into months, stretched out in time.
For three months in summer 2022, I was filming the everyday life of myself, my family and other
Ukrainian women who were forced outside the borders of their country, in the small resort town of Bad Liebenstein in the forests of Thuringia in Germany.
Using the stories of Ukrainian women and my own as an example, I explore the existential questions facing all Ukrainian refugees who are at the crossroads of life abroad, while the war continues on and their loved ones are staying behind in their Motherland.
Ukrainian women who were forced outside the borders of their country, in the small resort town of Bad Liebenstein in the forests of Thuringia in Germany.
Using the stories of Ukrainian women and my own as an example, I explore the existential questions facing all Ukrainian refugees who are at the crossroads of life abroad, while the war continues on and their loved ones are staying behind in their Motherland.
In a safe place, in a calm point of the world's rotation, can we find our own peace of mind and find the strength to move on, is there a new point of reference?
How are those invisible lines of force that connect you with the closest ones stretched like strings, and just now became invisible and hypersensitive?
Through the symbolic visual details, the handmade nature of the photo diary, I work with metaphors and self-identity.
How are those invisible lines of force that connect you with the closest ones stretched like strings, and just now became invisible and hypersensitive?
Through the symbolic visual details, the handmade nature of the photo diary, I work with metaphors and self-identity.
The project was created in the frame of 'Visualisations of 20th-century Forced Migrations' program - an initiative of the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS) and Deutsche Gesellschaft e.V.(Berlin, Wrozlaw) and was presented in Depot History Centre (Centrum Historii Zajezdnia) in Wrocław.
The book is about 90 pages. Here are some of them.
'... Before we got to Germany from Ukraine, we had a journey that took us 2 months. Every stop on this way is encapsulated in some small item that I took with me, that was given to us, or I would just pick up randomly (my old traveller habit). It was a unique journey, however, existing habits helped to stand more stable on the ground.'
'...Silence. Watercolor glazing of time. The world where you are a guest, an added character in a freshly made collage of historical flow...'
'...Plants are a unique trigger for those who fled their countries. Now I know it for sure. You can feel on a physical level how your memory works. That smell, sound and blossom of all those plants, trees, fruits, that pop up in the memory. There is still a strong connection between the beloved places and landscapes, flora over there.
Once you see those plants in a foreign country, you greet them as an old friend, that would get confused in their life and mistakenly grew up here, away from the homeland. They feel good over here just as they do back home, and they don’t lose themselves and stay what they are. What about you? '
'...Back home I had so many plants, and I am afraid that almost all of the flowers will have withered. The last couple of months in Kyiv were so dangerous that my friends back home were not able to care for the plants while I am away.
While working on this project in the safe spot of our turning world, a small avocado stone grew to be a plant on the windowsill of my temporary home, castle Weimar. Time never stops and, although chaotically, keeps moving us forward.
We have new plans, new laughter and new tears, we find new things to do.
But the question arises - will there ever be this point of stillness in your heart again?
…Only when the world starts turning in the same rhythm. Here and there, in a place I miss so much.'