Crimea: A No Man's Land
© Gennadiy Chernega. Whose land?
Part 4 Video Works
This segment of Crimea: The No Man’s Land Exhibition presents video work about Crimea. Ranging in genre from a documentary reportage (Ksenia Marchenko) to poetical impressionistic sketches (Nastya Loyko) to metaphorical similes (Gennadiy Chernega) and in time from the peaceful 2011 to the turbulent 2014 and the disillusioning 2016, the selection offers a comprehensive picture of Crimea’s recent past and present as well as a premonition about its future.
Kseniya Marchenko. Whose Crimea? 2016
Kseniya Marchenko (b. 1989) is an independent documentalist from Kyiv who researches post-revolutionary transformations in Ukraine’s society.
Her Whose Crimea? series of video reportages (2016) address the issue of forming a pro-Russian mindset in Crimea, the territory that was unilaterally declared a historical Russian land and appended to Russia in 2014. Marchenko filmed public holiday celebrations, like New Year and the second anniversary of the referendum - public rituals which provide an ideal opportunity to look into Russian propaganda cliches used to brainwash the local population. The messages broadcasted during the events by officials and repeated by the crowd activists depict Ukraine as a fascist regime whose aggression against Crimea was prevented by Russia.
Referendum
New Year
Alexander Prisyazhnenko, Bella Logacheva. The Changing Cabin, 2011
Alexander Prisyazhnenko (b. 1981) and Bella Logacheva (b. 1973) live in Kharkiv and call their artistic partnership the EXcess group. They work with photography, video and new media.
The 2014 revolution in Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea and the war in the East brought along a crucial transformation in the people’s mindset. Independence and freedom became core values for the majority of the counrty population. The national anthem was sung by crowds of protesters in the street, the national flag colors turned into the markers of pro-Ukrainian public spirit. Contrasting to that, The Changing Cabin video (2011), which was made in Simeiz, Crimea, two years before those events, is a perfect illustration of the prevailing attitudes of Crimeans toward their country and its national symbols: from indifference to disregard to contempt.
Daryna Deyneko-Kazmiruk and Sergei Kazmiruk.
This Side of Koktebel, Four Sighs about Koktebel, 2013
Daryna Deyneko-Kazmiruk (b. 1986) and Sergei Kazmiruk (b. 1985) are a family duo based in Kyiv. In 2013 they participated in art residences in Koktebel, Crimea.
Kazmiruks' Four Sighs about Koktebel video is supported with This Side of Koktebel, a series of images combined with concise text commentary. The video and photographs are the results of journalistic research that lifts the veil above the off-season life of Koktebel inhabitants:
...there are heirs of these Bulgarian-Tatar lands that keep richness of their
history in the recesses of their own memories, like old faded family albums.
The video presents four one-minute stories describing (1) the life of a Bulgarian family deported by the Soviet government in 1944; (2) a recent issue about an attempt to build a quarry dangerously close to the Karadag Mountain National Preserve; (3) an abandoned local residential area, (4) and the genius loci of Koktebel Maximilian Voloshin, an artist and a poet of the early 20th century. The photographic series This Side of Koktebel adds more stories of local people, their lives and occupations.
Portfolio: This Side of Koktebel
Emine Ziyatdinova. Home, 2015 – 2016
Emine Ziyatdinova (b. 1987) is a documentary photographer based in Kiev, Ukraine. She was born in Uzbekistan, where her family was deported from Crimea in 1944 by the Stalin regime. The family returned to Crimea in the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. Growing up as a part of the Crimean Tatar in post-Soviet Ukraine, she received a firsthand understanding of the various human rights issues that arose with ethnic minorities. The desire to advocate for people who are often unable to voice their concerns brought her to the career paths of sociology and documentary photography. She graduated from Ohio University's School of Visual Communication with MA degree in photojournalism.
The video installation Home (2015 – 2016) was created as part of Reconstruction of Memory show in Kyiv and is played on two side-by-side screens with one audio track. The multiple videos portray three generations of women from Ziyatdinova's family - her grandmother who was deported from Crimea in 1944, her mother who was born in Uzbekistan, and herself. The women reflect on a collective memory of Crimean Tatars and how the political system effected the perception of their personal and collective experience, and their ethnic identity. The video ends with Tatar, Ukrainian and Russian crowds chanting political slogans in the spring of 2014 during the fake Crimean referendum.
Gennadiy Chernega. Whose Land? 2015
Gennadiy Chernega (b. 1979) is a photographer and videoartist from Kyiv.
Chernega’s Whose Land? (2015) is a visual metaphore of the Crimean history - the land that has changed hands over and over again throughout its multi-millennial history.
The desire to rob someone of something always triggers a greedy and pointless struggle. The land will remain where it has always been, but the combatants will be left empty-handed.
Nastya Loyko
6 Insurgents Sq., (2011); The White Spots, (2012); The Beach, 2013; Crimeans To Crimeans, (2014)
Nastya Loyko (b. 1978) is a video artist from Zaporizhia, Ukraine. In 2008 she moved to the town of Yalta in Crimea where she purchased a studio and as a member of the Artzebs Group organized numerous artistic events. She had to leave Yalta in 2014 because of the Russian invasion, moving back to Zaporizhia. She visits Yalta from time to time to prevent her poperty from pillage, which is not unheard of in today’s Crimea. Loyko’s stylistic approaches in her work are manifold.
In this exhibition we have included four videos by Nastya Loyko.
The White Spots (2012) is a 45-second impressionist sketch that researches the blind spots of the mind regarding the relativity of a macrocosm vs. microcosm, something not yet discovered, but already perceived:
The white spots pass shy of borders wayfaring by ants’ road map…
The Beach (2013) is a beautifully composed sequence of video fragments showing pictures that are only too painfully familiar. The sea (including underwater footage), the singing cikadas, the vineyards under the hot Crimean sun, the occasional voiceover of characteristic phrases and noises - they all create an enchanting, almost psychodelic quality of this work.
Two of Loyko’s videos deal directly with political issues in Crimea.
6 Insurgents Sq. (2011) is about Sevastopol NGO activists trying to get registered for the City Public Council’s first session. Even in 2011 Crimean authorities would not let civil society have a say in their “controlled democracy” political system. The staged character of this farsical event is emphesized by the worn-out LP audio track of Rossini’s Aria of Don Basilio.
Crimeans To Crimeans (2014) is a video report of the events of March 2014, when Crimea was invaded by the Russian troops. It shows the foul play of collaborating city officials and the mixed reactions of Crimean locals to the annexation.