INCRUSTATION

It was created in 2021. 

The forests on the border of the Leningrad region and Karelia are rich not only in mushrooms and berries. The earth and trees keep traces of the past left by people. Often you can see barbed wire that is partially submerged into tree trunks, goes into the ground or is stretched between trunks. Sometimes it seems that it grows right out of the ground. We have to look for a workaround, because it is impossible to pass if our shoes don’t have soles thick enough to withstand it.

Barbed wire remains here for several reasons:
SVIRLAG (Svirsky ITL) was organized on September 17, 193, which was a branch of the GULAG OGPU. The office was located in Lodeynoye Pole, Leningrad Region. It operated till July 1937. The maximum one-time number of prisoners was 47,400 people.

The second reason is the World War II. For almost three years (1941-1944), which the Finns occupied the right bank of the Svir River, they created a fortified, deeply echeloned defense line. And the kilometers of barbed wire on this coast remained here as reminders of that war. Despite the war being over, a lot of the wiring still acts as if it needs to defend something.

In both cases, barbed wire was used to stop people. The thorn, like nothing else, is associated with restrictions, fear, and insecurity. Although it is a natural process for objects to be slowly consumed by trees, it is the barbed wire, designed to stop the living, that makes you think and feel vulnerable. People get used to injuries and restrictions caused by fear and uncertainty or imposed by meaningless directives. And in this we are like trees with steel thorns that are inside. Drawing this analogy between trees and people, between forest and society, we see a reflection of the modern world.