Garden of People
The Ukrainian artist Nadiya Olefir, born in the currently Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, grew up in Energodar, currently Russian occupied as well - a city that, along with its surroundings, was flooded by an explosion at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station last summer. Her childhood garden is no longer accessible to her; all the paths she walked on are submerged. Throughout the winter, Nadiya worked on ceramic objects, structuring her feelings. Spring always begins in winter. She verbalizes her existential questions in poetic form, and at the intersection of two mediums, ceramic poetry emerges. The artist believes that her ceramic objects are like stones, and stones are like people. Relationships with other people, the constraints of social norms, the traumas of war, shape us over time, just as the passage of time and natural phenomena give form to stones. We are like stones, and stones are like us; our edges touch each other, giving and receiving, enriching and limiting. The installation of stone objects invites the viewer to focus on the current unique moment, to abstract from informational noise and role-playing behavior; to find their place among the stones in the studio space and choose a stone that resonates with their feelings. Place a note in it with what you feel at that moment. The stones will be filled with your feelings during the exhibition, and the stone garden will find new life.
人々の庭 ウクライナのアーティスト、ナディヤ・オレフィールは、現在ロシアに占領されているメリトポリの街で生まれ、同じくロシアに占領されているエネルゴダルで育った。エネルゴダルは、昨年の夏に起こったカホフカ水力発電所の爆発によって洪水に見舞われた。彼女が幼い頃住んでいた庭は水没し、もはや歩くことはできない。 冬の間、ナディアは自分の感情を構造化し、陶器に注ぎ込んだ。春はいつも冬から始まる。 彼女が言語化する実存的な問いの2つの媒体が交わる場所で、陶器の詩が生まれる。陶器のオブジェは石のようであり、また石は人のようであると、彼女は考えている。時間の流れや自然現象が石に形を与えるように、他者との関係や社会規範の制約、戦争のトラウマが、長い時間をかけて私たちを形作る。私たちは石のようであり、石は私たちのようである。私たちの境界は互いに触れ合い、与え、受け取り、豊かにし、また制限する。 石のオブジェのインスタレーションを見る者は、今この瞬間に没入し、情報のノイズやロールプレイング的なふるまいから自由になる。スタジオの空間に自らの居場所を見つけ、自分の感情に共鳴する石を選ぶことになる。自分の感情を書き込んだメモを石の中に残すことで、会期中その石にはあなたの感情が吹き込まれ、石庭は新たな生命を見出すだろう。
What some visitors wrote:
There is anxiety inside me,
I touch the Stone and I filled with a peace.
Feeling of pleasant coolness.
I’m a little nervous.
I embrace life, I embrace my heart, I embrace stone there is light shining inside me.
There is warmth inside the stone.
life will always find a way out this moment is the moment of truth.
I feel peace and quiet.
I feel openness.
I’m like this stone, lying in the sea foam.
Silence inside me.
Love.
Participating in a panel discussion organized by Res.Artist and Co.iki in the context of "Shaping our Support System in Polytopia"—a discussion for the "POLYTOPIA – re.birth" exhibition. Talked about art community support and presented the "Garden of People" project.