RUSSIA WITHOUT US
A sentimental project about childhood, loyalty to one's kind, memory and the inexorability of time. Visual reflection on the feeling of «home» and «true life values» during forced emigration.
«There is a place on earth where time is hidden and memory is slowly slipping through your fingers. The whole space there froze in anticipation that someone would come and blow the dust off old family albums, repeat traditional recipes for homemade buns, hang hand-washed clothes on a clothesline in the yard, pick fragrant peonies in an abandoned garden, finally find the most beautiful branches and pebbles on the shore And skimming stones on the Volga River. The „traces“ of this space will forever remain in my heart as long as I carry these sacred feelings inside and share them with those who are ready to see».
Time to collect stones
This expression emphasizes the cyclical nature of time. It means that there is a time limit for each event, and when it comes, it will be necessary to sum up. A person «throws stones» all his life — commits acts that are the cause for long-term consequences. And then comes the «time to collect stones» — this is the time for analyzing the results of activities, when there is no time for new actions or for correcting the committed ones.
Russia. Ulyanovsk. June 2021