Kyrgyzstan Diary

(ongoing) Born and raised in the former Soviet Union, but living in Europe, I'm used to different situations, conversations, and people asking me a simple question, just like "Where are you originally from?". But this question is not an easy one to me and mostly ends up with a long conversation about a widely unknown little country in Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan. But I am not from today's Kyrgyzstan. At that time during my childhood, it was part of the Soviet Union. My memories of my early childhood are mostly memories of the time of a "Soviet child" in a country that no longer exists in this way. Today's Kyrgyzstan is an independent and democratic country. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent independence of the country in 1991, there was a time of significant political and social changes for the country and the region. The transition from the Soviet system to independence was not an easy one. The Kyrgyz nation went through difficult times of many years of socio-economic hardship that still continues today, especially in the rural parts of Kyrgyzstan. My project, "Kyrgyzstan diary", is my personal view on a post-Soviet country. I see the dichotomy between the modern and the old. The varied images of traveling, and documentaries of daily life situations and special moments are my personal experiences and my encounters in a country which I still feel to be part of. Each time I am visiting the land of my childhood, I discover new unseen daily life moments. Sometimes just short moments which maybe seem to be unimportant. But all together they complete a little bit more my understanding of this country.