Khrystyna Kirik
State of Latitude
2024
Audiovisual spatial 4-channel installation
dedicated to the ecocide in Ukraine
(work-in-progress)
Audiovisual spatial 4-channel installation
dedicated to the ecocide in Ukraine
(work-in-progress)
This work is featuring 4 unique ecological environments from eastern and southern Ukraine – the Svyati Hory, the Syvash Islands, the Velykyi Chapel Pid and the Kamianska Sich – that have been affected by Russia’s violent attack.
It’s about space, about the sense of magnitude and the wide scale of destruction. It’s about the vulnerability of space, the openness of natural landscapes to external influences and their defenselessness against human intervention. It’s about the emotional state and the feeling of powerlessness in the face of this destruction. It is about an invitation to plunge into a state of contemplation, to connect to the history of the traumatized lands. It is also about a wide range of responsibilities and the need for broad thinking and cooperation to restore and protect the environment.
This breadth is pain, it is a carrier of ancient wisdom that “speaks” to us through its history. This latitude is alive and has its own rhythm, its own voice, its own breath. This latitude is about the earth, which speaks through its silence, through disturbed harmony, through unusual sounds.
All data was collected from interviews and expeditions of ecologist Anna Kuzemko.
This project created and supported as part of the Echoes of The Earth residence and exhibition by ∄ and u2203 studio in Kyiv.
This work is a part from an exhibition in which took part 5 other artists: Liza Biletska, Matviy Kozlov, Olya Oborina, Vartan Markariyan, Glam Gorgoyle.
The visuals were developed by Myk Rudik from u2203 studio led by Alen Hast.
The music for State of Latitude emerges as a tactile, spatial soundscape that sonifies the ecological realities of Ukraine’s south and east.
Built around voice—fragmented, granulated, and processed—it conveys both the fragility and resilience of these landscapes. At its core lies a traditional song, "Ой, Боже, Боже, з такою годиною..." ("Oh, God, God, with such an hour..."), sourced from the Hilka collective’s Songs of the Ukrainian Steppes II (1996).
This melody, once naturally resonating across the steppe, now returns as a spectral echo, interwoven with electronic textures and environmental sound to reflect the transformation of these lands and the voices that once inhabited them.
