Since the escalation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Asia Bazdyrieva, who has settled in Germany, where the sociopolitical reality seems more and more volatile, has crossed the border between her home country and peaceful Western countries several times. She has experienced first-hand that this border produces two realms: the realm of being in pain and the realm of trying to prevent it at all costs. Ukraine’s resistance has put the country on the map: prior to the invasion, its territories were imaged and imagined as a site of inexhaustible resources that can feed the entire world; however, after the invasion, the fear of disruption has produced an emotional state that is identical to the one produced by climate change – the fear that the usual lifestyle will soon be over. The problematic yet convenient separation of climate and war discourses and narratives in the Western world has proven to be no longer sustainable.
Colophon
Asia Bazdyrieva: Micro, Meso, Macro
PostScriptUM #48
Series edited by Janez Fakin Janša
Publisher: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
Represented by: Marcela Okretič
Proofreading: Miha Šuštar
Design: Luka Umek
Layout: Sonja Grdina
Cover image: Satellite imagery of an MLRS launch site with a smoke plume still visible. Taken on 27 February 2022 over Belgorod Oblast, Russia. The photograph was used in open-source intelligence research, aimed at identifying Russian artillery attacks in the direction of Kharkiv, Ukraine. Source: PlanetScope, CC BY-NC 2.0. Retrieved September 25, 2023, from https://www.planet.com/gallery/#!/post/rocket-attack
(c) Aksioma | All text and image rights reserved by the author | Ljubljana 2023
Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana
Published in the framework of the programme Tactics & Practice #14: Scale
Originally published online in the October 2023 issue of the transmediale journal in both German and English. Edited by Elise Misao Hunchuck.
Related event: Tactics & Practice #14: Scale