"Poem about the Sea" mit Elīna Ķempele und Anastasiia Omelianiuk : SOLOMIYA STUDIO FESTIVAL im KVOST

In the organizer's words:

One of the central themes of the Latvian Art Yearbook 2024, WunderKombināts No. 3, is the intersection of art and ecology. The focus is on the complex relationships between human and non-human entities shaped by the Soviet colonial legacy and its lingering effects. The launch of the new issue by the magazine's founder, Elīna Ķempele, together with author Anastasiia Omelianiuk from the Ukrainian Decolonial Glossary, will be followed by the screening of Oleksandr Dovzhenko's 1958 feature film "Poem about the Sea". The film, completed by his wife Yuliya Solntseva, poetically portrays the construction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, combining propaganda with a nuanced critique.
The hydroelectric power plant was built at extreme speed in 1955 as part of Stalin's "Plan for the Transformation of Nature" and irrigated the Ukrainian Crimea and the southern regions, while the Kakhovka reservoir was transformed into an inland sea. However, this vision came at a devastating price: fertile land and almost 100 villages were flooded. Similar projects led to widespread ecological and social destruction in Latvia and Kazakhstan. The legacy of this infrastructure became clear on the night of June 6, 2023, when Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka Dam, triggering an unprecedented environmental disaster with far-reaching consequences.