Dumka Shumka
Analog video / 4:3 / 08:21 / 2021

Reflecting on the question of identity, I created this video work as an inner journey that unfolds in a metaphorical way from the dream state to self-awareness. The purpose of travel, like any journey, is to get to know yourself. Since human nature is a reflection of the surrounding world, the search for oneself takes place in the direct experience of a tactile dialogue with nature. The path to self-discovery is revealed in universal natural images - researching one's origin through touching the roots of trees, achieving a goal through climbing a hill, contemplating the transience of time and the cycle of life through interaction with the river…

Dumka-Shumka emphasises the increasing interest of Ukrainians in their origin, their roots, and the desire to renew this connection. The land that gives life to us becomes first our first and then our last home, causes powerful associations of self-identification with it, which can also be traced in the works of many Ukrainian modernist writers. Finding oneself in the landscape of one's native land is a comfort that justifies even the suffering that the struggle for this land brings.

Just as Mykola Lysenko's composition "Dumka Shumka" (1877) demonstrates the integrality of internal reflection, thoughtfulness, play and dance in the minds of Ukrainians, the video encourages us to look into the outer horizons in order to dive into the inner depths of ourselves.

Music performed by Vladyslav Petryk and Igor Sedyuk (Kharkiv, Ukraine)

Made as part of the Digital Art Therapy Studio V-Art project with the support of the UCF.