When a great calamity strikes, individuals turn to their beliefs. The sacred and the utilitarian converge in this moment. Some seek explanations in the scientific laws of the universe and rationalize, while others communicate with higher forces through prayer. However, on the everyday level, rituals become our salvation. The human world both relies on and revolves around them.
Ukrainian rituals intricately intertwine pre-Christian mysticism and magical practices, universally connected to the earth, its cycles, and qualities.
Working the land has enriched our culture with knowledge and the experience of intimate contact with nature, encompassing both the living and the dead. We understand that the earth assimilates everything, giving rise to new life in spring. We comprehend: as you sow, so shall you reap. We acknowledge: the earth provides and takes away.
It's akin to a visual representation of the journey through the afterlife – the living disintegrates, becomes lifeless, and then regenerates in a new form.
What does an artist do in the face of the end of the world as we knew it?
She harnesses all her strength as tools for her ritual, aiming to reshape the world and overcome destruction through the power of creation.
She buries evil in the ground, seeking victory in her ritual through the profound mystical faith and advanced knowledge of the laws of the universe, safeguarding the most precious thing we possess – our land.
Evgenia Nesterovych
