The Earth She Tends
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Dates2025 - Ongoing
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Author
- Topics Daily Life, Documentary, Nature & Environment, Portrait, Social Issues, War & Conflicts
- Location Administrative-Territorial Units of the Left Bank of the Dniester, Moldova
Documentary work examines the spiritual bond, cultivated through gardening, and the geopolitical conflict between a Ukrainian granddaughter and her grandmother living in Transnistria, a self-proclaimed territory under Russian control.
Once a year I return to Mayak (Beacon) - little town where I spent my early childhood - stripped of its fruits because of the parched soil, its youth, its future. Yet my grandmother remains rooted to her land, to the garden and to the grave of her daughter, which she tends with the same care as her plants.
To discover what guides her, I capture her daily rhythms of tending the earth, and surrendering to the earth that tends her. Her work in the garden that once fed our entire family, the flowers she arranges with devotion on the grave of her tragically passed daughter, and the rituals of care that keep her grounded. As her day is full of work, I grasp how her acceptance of death - that I am so scared of - comes through dedication. Eleven thousand miles away from her, fear and helplessness overwhelm me: since | left, what life is left for her in the place governed by the country that simultaneously kills my home? By photographing her garden, her hands, and the earth she tends, I try to understand how she carries love, grief, and routine with such quiet dignity.
Observing the land that she refuses to abandon, I reflect on how it has shaped us both, and try to preserve the world created by the woman who shaped me even more. My work aims to further deepen my examination of my relationship with my grandmother and how this shapes my current practice. I aim to use a detailed and experimental approach in order to achieve a profound connection and level of intimacy between us. The Sun on the Horizon (Naomi Kawase, 1996) would be a great example to refer grandmother and granddaughter relationships, gazes and insights cast on the lovable beings in front of our eyes. My through my work I want to overcome political and psychological barriers preventing me from observing beauty that is fading away.
