The root

In the face of a global conflict, the sense of stability and belonging to a place has been shaken. My video work is an attempt to deal with this experience, both on an individual and collective level.

The work was created when my hometown was in the “cauldron” (without signal, light, water, being bombed), and the only way to gather information was by watching reels on city Instagram pages and Telegram. The video includes footage from Mariupol, which I filmed in the summer of 2022. At that time, it felt as if time had stopped in a city waiting for inexplicable changes. I would take my camera and obsessively document everything I saw.

After February 24, 2022, in search of comfort, I began spending more time in the forest, feeling a physical need to take root in a new place and give all my grief and despair to the earth.

The work consists of four vignettes that connect two worlds: the virtual and the real. Plants, symbolizing life and hope, grow against the backdrop of the ruins of my body and imagination, creating a surreal image. The video layer is a kind of fiction, something that has nothing to do with current reality, and is meant to serve only as fertile compost.

My work is an invitation to reflect on how technology shapes our perception of the world and how we can use imagination to build new, more empathetic relationships with others and with nature. I wanted to create a space where viewers could experience both pain and hope, and reflect on what it means to be human in times of crisis.