Study of Suma river

in collaboration with Masha Fomenko
film, duration varies, 2020 - present

Year lasting visual research of life of the Suma river in Sumskiy Posad, Karelia. Ongoing sequence of static soundless scenes, discovering interaction of nature time and landscapes (natural, cultural, social). Suma river is central element of oldest pomor village Sumskiy Posad, it provides drinking water supply, route into the sea and fish supply, it is central axe of the village and main element of it’s visual, sound, cultural and economical landscape. 

Film screened as an endless sequence of shots of the river displayed in a random order. This random automated editing lets independent stories emerge in a blink of spectators sight .

“The concept of a random sequence is probably the phenomenon of this film. Nothing happens, but the river lives. Its existence has no end or beginning, it disappears at dusk and is reborn, naturally, at dawn. Having removed the sound, the artist tries to restrict the image, plays with landscape sctructure and touches, like beads, that forgotten exceptionality, which alone has an erasable special visual nature being able to turn a river into a muddy puddle. Sensitization of perception arises from irritation by what you see - the opposite effect is reproduced - not enjoying a frame, drifting from a frame-object to its limitation. This Bazin principle passes the border of a light beam on the Suma River, separating the full flow of a clear current (read the frame in its ideal narrative) and seething foamy water. Meanwhile behind the scenes in the story beyond "official", you can always "rest your gaze" on a winter landscape with either dilapidated houses or a lonely dog. The pragmatism of the approach and the conscious rejection of any romanticization, including the one marked topographically, as if deliberately places this film in the category of “nothing”. And here an almost poetic manipulation arises - from sensitive oscillation to instrumentation of the video.”
Karina Karaeva