Anxiety of Black Earth

2023-2024

In the project "Anxiety of Black Earth", Victor Sydorenko's characters are trapped in overnight dreams of the restless Ukrainian lands currently engulfed in war. The colour black has a whole range of associations in the new series of the artist. Apart from being the colour of night, the root of the word“black”in the Ukrainian language is found in such words as black soil, Chornobyl, and Chornobaivka. Each evokes associations with stories of the Holodomor genocide, man-made disaster, and russian invasion.

Traumatic experiences of those who witnessed wars and social catastrophes are in the foreground of these stories. Starting from the “Amnesia” project by Victor Sydorenko, these characters appear in white underwear. Both then and now, they remind us of the fates of millions of people who are trying to get rid of burdensome memories and heal in anticipation of epochal changes.

Today, the earth is associated not only with the native area, but also with the substance that preserves evidence of russian war crimes: the bodies of murdered people, the rubble of cities, houses, and streets. In certain cases, the earth is literally the only thing that remained from the former life.

What was dear to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians since their childhood has been destroyed and turned into an exclusion zone with only ruins and ashes. The only thing that keeps it all together is courage. The people who ruthlessly look into the face of darkness.

Today, the land is associated not only with the native area, but also with the substance that preserves evidence of Russian war crimes: the bodies of murdered people, the ruins of cities, houses and streets. In certain cases, the land is literally the only thing left from their former life.