Alexandra Demenkova continues the classical tradition of humanistic photography . In the series Territory of Broken Dreams for the photographer chose a Russian village and its people.
For many of the residents of Russian metropolis, like Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the countryside simply doesn’t exist. Yet you do not have to travel far outside the cities to find half-wrecked villages where primarily older people live in bitter poverty. They are former labourers on state farms, elderly and unemployed, stranded in once lively villages. You hardly see any children; there is no longuer any service , and community spirit has been replaced by loneliness, alcoholism and crime. You may feel sorry for the people who live like that, in everlasting poverty and without hopes for changes, but you feel happy that such places exist and you see that people who live there give each other and their children all their care and human warmth, instead of having computers as their best friends and scarcely talking to each other as it often happens in our homes. They are still able to gather around the table and talk for hours, and then, as there is no electricity and as you are far away from well lit cities, you can watch the stars, millions of stars, and feel that you are part of the universe.
“The experience of photographing made me think how fragile this world of relative stability created by our families is, how thin is the borderline between health, both mental and physical, and sickness; the normality of everyday life and misery; hope and despair; freedom and lifetime imprisonment.”
Alexandra Demenkova
The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Latvian Museum of Photography in Riga.
Territory of Broken Dreams
September 5 – October 14, 2012
Galerija „Meno parkas“
Rotušės a./sq. 27,
Kaunas
Lithuania
