OUT-OF-THE-WAY

The project was created on the far away territories of the Extreme North of Russia, where bad accessibility and isolation, special relationship with nature and following the century-long ways of life involve unique mythology of the region where the fictional things are very often more important than modern reality. These lands are immersed into the flow of their own life activity, where the past and the present surprisingly interlace. My ancestors were hereditary hunters in a small settlement near Nizhnyaya Tunguska River. Almost 300 years ago they came to colonize Siberia, then assimilated into the Evenkis and founded a village in taiga. They lived in an old house as a large family with more than 15 children. Nowadays the population of the village is 130 people, and all of them are distant relatives: those who are not brothers, are related in a neighbourly way. Life of this part of my family — my father’s siblings and numerous cousins and nephews — has not changed for centuries in that remote area surrounded with pristine wilderness. Modern civilization penetrates slowly and fragmentarily in there, it is intricately woven into the local way of life. The closest town is 300 km away, and the transport connection functions only in winter time. Local and family legends and traditions are still mighty in the settlement.