“at a painful distance” is a project, where I reflect on my personal experience of being forcefully displaced from my homeland during the war in Ukraine.

After relocation, when a displaced individual no longer feels existentially threatened, he or she goes deeper into mental trauma. The feeling of losing control over their lives, painful adaptation to a new environment, “survivor’s guilt” and other deep emotional experiences accompany displaced people in their new “safe life”.

I have realized that, being at a distance, every explosion in my hometown, every shelling in my country, is perceived much more sharply than if it were experienced in the center of the events. The distance from home, family and native context is filled with sorrow. To overcome the suffering I try to find some anchors, footholds that can bring me back. My childhood memories, old family photos, and images of my home objects become the anchors that I hold on to. They fade in and out of my fantasies and dreams, mixed with nightmarish scenes that my subconscious processes. They help me to overcome the distance, which is filled with pain.​​​​​​​