Ruins in Reverse by Olena Newkryta exhibited as part of Watermans’ New Media Arts programme, 5 September to 1 November 2022.

Film essay 24:55 min.

Language: Ukrainian with English subtitles UA / AT 2020

Shot in a steppe landscape in southern Ukraine, this short film follows the transformation of an abandoned Soviet residential apartment building.

The apartment building was built to a standardized Soviet master plan. The building is slowly being dismantled by individuals, who create new architectures from the extracted materials. We see the traces of personal histories and the remains of past ideologies inscribed into the physical remnants. These continue to circulate in the community and find their way into new constructions.

Ruins in Reverse addresses this process of appropriation and utilization.  It examines the form of material engagement with the past as well as an act of self-empowerment. On the one hand, the Soviet infrastructures and belief systems continue to affect everyday life.  Equally, the film reflects the massive political upheaval and process of privatisation at the beginning of the 90s and raises difficult questions. How do individuals as well as communities deal with such synchronicities? How do they navigate between the socialist and capitalist ruins? And what forms of reflection and interaction emerge?

Olena Newkryta (*1990, UA) is a visual artist based in Vienna. Olena Newkryta’s research based practice includes photography, moving images and installations. The artist is driven by a strong interest in the materiality of particular spaces and objects and their inherent historical, and socio-economic traces. Olena Newkryta’s work discusses the production of spaces, images and social fabrics.

Olena Newkryta’s work has  also attracted both prizes and grants. These include: the Working Grant of the Stadt Wien; START-scholarship of the Federal Ministry for Culture; Grant of the Federal Ministry for Science; Award of the Kunsthalle Wien and the Prize of the Lentos Museum-Friends. Her works have been presented at international exhibitions and screenings, including WRO Media Art Biennial (PL), Diagonale Filmfestival (AT), Kyiv International Short Filmfestival (UA), Blickle Kino Vienna (AT), VISIO – Lo schermo dell´arte (IT), Kunsthalle Exnergasse Wien (AT), Fotogalerie Wien (AT), Kunsthalle Wien (AT), Salzburger Kunstverein (AT), Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz (AT), Crossing Europe Filmfestival (AT), A Tale of a Tub Rotterdam (NL).