Dom

Dom stands for "home" and "house" in Russian.

This topic has always been sensitive in my family. My great grandfather's home was destroyed twice because of dekulakization — the Soviet campaign of political repressions. My family was forced to move twice; the first time was when I was three, after the 1998 Russian financial crisis. I moved myself in March 2022 after the government of my country launched a criminal full-scale war against Ukraine and turned demanding peace into a crime.

The ongoing project explores different edges of feeling at home, losing home, and trying to find one. I interviewed my friends from Russia and Ukraine, most of whom moved after the invasion, and captured them in their current apartments abroad with the objects that help create the ephemeral sensation of being at home.

In the end, the objects turned out to be just a thread that helped untangle something deeper and much more complex.

It is especially important for me to share the stories of my Ukrainian friends as nothing can be compared to losing one’s home, both mental and physical one, to air strikes, tanks and bombs.