With Darya Iaromenok
Art Residence "Polar day", Nickel, Murmansk Region, Russia

Maps won’t help much if you want to learn something about the country. Okay, you can see a lot, big cities as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, main routes, rivers and all. But there is still a huge empty space in between these key spots you know nothing about.

Small towns look alike due to the same architectural and urban planning ideas; one might actually think they are identical twins. Although there is one thing that makes the difference. That’s people. People make the town / city / settlement alive, unique and functioning as opposed to fictional.

The Presence / Absence project is focused on a human factor. The installation makes cold abstract photography meet the handcrafted ceramic object made by artists and locals collaboration. Photos of Absence show desolate Nikel landscapes. The brick line called Presence changes the whole picture overnight.

Every person is entitled to take away any fragment of the line if they want leaving an autograph instead. That’s the way to be a part of presence.