The Spell of Polesie
Polesia, Poland - Ukraine - Belaruse. 2022.
In Collaboration with Agata Mrozowski and Nadia Chan Awarded: Honourable Mention, Memorial for Witches. Buildner International Architecture Competition.
“Once upon a time, the ancient Slavic goddess of death and regeneration as peronified by the mythical figure of Baba Yaga, was seen as a threat to the Christian state. She was, as a result, demonized and vilified in an effort to diminish her import as an eternal healer. As a forest-dwelling shapeshifter, Baba Yaga persists as an agent of transformation, by embodying multiplicity, challenging patriarchy, and forging alliances with the morethan-human world. Her homeland of Polesie, a multiethnic borderland, is a spellbound topography of swamps and primordial forests haunted bu the horrors of ethnic cleansing, colonization, forced displacement, and imperial conquests of past and present. This region was witness to the persecution of women for excercising rituals rooted in ancient Slavic pagan traditions during Christainisation, modernization, and occupation. Tenacious folk spirituality, which integrates such traditions, is attributed to its assimilation by the church. Its survival is depply rooted in the persistence and resilience of the babushkas of Polesie. These women, for centuries, have communed with the sentient world, and observed land-based practices and rituals in tune with the cycles of life. In the process, they forge creation, and preserve their knowledge and wisdoom through oral transmission and folklore for future generations.” Baba Yaga’s hut and spirit serve as inspiration for the memorial interventions. The temporal structures situated in three emblematic terrains of the region have seasonal lifecycles.
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