<
https://kyivindependent.com/two-sisters-capture-the-beauty-of-ukraines-villages-before-its-gone/>
"Svitlana Oslavska and Anna Ilchenko embarked on a mission in 2020 to document
Ukraine’s villages before they were lost to time and war.
Traversing across Ukraine’s vast landscape, the sisters started speaking to
people from villages about topics as diverse as the best construction method of
a house to their contemplations on life and death.
They select brief yet emotionally charged excerpts from their recorded
conversations with locals to share on Facebook and Instagram under the title
Old khata project. The word “khata” roughly means “cottage” in English, an apt
description of the unique old architectural style of homes found in Ukrainian
villages.
Ukraine’s rural population is shrinking yearly, with many people moving to
larger cities or abroad for better prospects. Documenting these villages and
the people who still call them home has been a way of preserving an important –
yet slowly vanishing – part of Ukraine’s cultural legacy.
With Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine impacting many villages, the Old
khata project also became a testimony to the Ukrainian people’s resilience.
The journalist-photographer duo has visited nearly 100 villages across Ukraine
over the past three years, including villages in Luhansk Oblast that have since
fallen under Russian occupation and now-destroyed villages in Kherson Oblast.
“This is what cannot be restored, and it's crucial that we were able to
document it. Even without the war, sooner or later, time would have destroyed
these houses,” Ilchenko told the
Kyiv Independent.
“To some extent, each photograph is a monument and, simultaneously, a trace of
the past.”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
