'Fall in love, O dark-browed maidens, but not with the Muscovites…'" is the opening line of the poem "Kateryna" by Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko. In the original poem, the Ukrainian village girl Kateryna falls in love with a Russian soldier (Muscovite), who leaves her. Katerina gives birth to a boy while waiting for her lover, and names him Ivan. Disowned by her family, she takes her son and heads to Moscow to find the soldier, but he ignores and leaves her once again. Devastated, she drowns herself, leaving her son to an old street musician. But what if Kateryna never left to look for the Muscovite? What if the pregnant Kateryna left to the south of Ukraine and gave birth to a gay son in Post-Soviet Kherson? What if they moved to Switzerland (Helvetia), where he would become an artist and she would become a saint?  "Katerina in Helvetia" weaves the my family’s story trough European literature and art history,  constructs a new nonlinear path and fate for the Shevchenko’s heroine. Using found and recycled fabrics, the artist creates a series of collages, imitating a sort of theater stage.

Embroidery and appliques with found fabrics and objects, acrylic on fabric and canvas

Various sizes

Installation view at DISKUS Aalst, 2023