Agrandissement : Illustration 1
Sasha Zaitseva, an artist from Donetsk shows an immersive installation on the theme of violence at the Stop Wars exhibition.
Your bright object at the exhibition is impossible not to notice. What did you want to say with this work?
My installation depicts an ovule that gives rise to violence - it comes out of it, is born, and returns to it. All material and information objects are imprinted in this living organism, which throughout our life influence the perception of violence, its acceptance and legitimization at the level of both everyday life and at the geopolitical level.
The work includes phrases from books for children, fairy tales, from Russian literature, religious objects. This work contains a bit of my personal history, and the history of my closest friend, and toys that are familiar to every Russian or Ukrainian since childhood - for example, red plastic soldiers that we had in every house. From birth, we were surrounded by something that refers us to the war. And under the red object depicting an ovule, there is a pillow with buckwheat ...
Sorry, I'm laughing, because I remembered the prices for buckwheat in a Russian store in Paris ...
... I found cheaper buckwheat, not 5 euros per kilogram. And in order to get inside this ovule, the viewer will need to kneel on the pillow - many children in Ukraine and Russia once went through such a punishment. In this way, the viewer participates in the process of accepting violence through punishment. After all, with the help of such punishment, a child was accustomed to the idea that violence against another person is something taken for granted, ordinary.
Did your parents punish you like that?
Well, my parents put me in the corner as a punishment. And inside this ovule there are drawings of my girlfriend who served time in prison, and headphones in which you can hear the soothing phrases of women in Ukrainian and Russian.
When was the idea born and how did it change in the process of work?
I came up with this project in the summer and over the past months, while I was working on it in the yard of the Agency of artists in exil, artists and even children of various nationalities constantly approached me, asked what it was, gave their comments and suggestions. And as a result, the project was constantly transformed. On the one hand, I did everything alone, and on the other hand, the result was a work that became the result of collective creativity - it's great.
How long have you been in France?
I came here to study almost ten years ago from Donetsk, where after that what started began. And I decided to stay in France.
Do you want to return?
Only in dreams. And it's really hard to imagine that. I only have my mother in Donetsk, but she is already so used to it that she no longer seems to perceive the danger of the situation. She can leave, but she doesn't want to. The worst thing is when people get used to war. Now my paternal grandmother lives in the Belgorod region in Russia, watches Channel One of Russian television endlessly and seriously tells me that we all need to be bombed to get rid of Nazism.
What were your previous projects about?
War in Donbass and my personal experience. Initially, it was difficult for me to understand who I am - my mother is Ukrainian, and my father was Russian. As a result, for the Ukrainians in Kyiv, I was from among the separatists, but for the Russians, I also could not be Russian. Therefore, my projects were devoted to the topic of cultural identity and self-acceptance.
Website of festival Visions d'exil 2022.
Website of l'atelier des artistes en exil
Sasha Zaitseva is a Ukrainian multidisciplinary artist.
Learn more about Sasha Zaitsava.