Monolith
Analog video installation / 02:49 / 2023

Created with Matthew O'Toole (The UK / Ireland)

The video installation "Monolith" is dedicated to the Ukrainians who in the face of a fight demonstrated the strength of resistance and unity. It is an ode to Ukrainians who, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, were able to unite their will.

A raised fist symbolises a hand ready for a fight, readiness to accept a challenge, and determination. Usually associated with political solidarity, the fist gesture was appropriated by the social and labour movements and is often taken as a typical modernist thing.

Unlike in the West, where revolution was in many cases about disagreement with the current political power and intention to start from scratch, the modernist movement in Ukraine from the very beginning of the 20th century aimed not only to overthrow the ruling power.

The struggle itself, being revolutionary, didn't aim just to burn the past. It was also oriented on returning to the Ukrainian traditions and reclaiming the right to live in a native cultural landscape.

Trying to get rid of the colonial paradigm imposed by the imperial power, there also had been an aspiration to get back its cultural roots.

In the video, some of the participants are wearing “vyshyvankas”, the traditional embroidered shirt, which emphasises the core of the struggle we are in. Ukrainians are fighting for freedom to be the subjects of their history.

Presented at the “Traversing body as a divining line” exhibition at the Titanik gallery in Turku, Finland within USRP