Few days ago I ve come back home from 'camp as one', an international art residency aimed at a shared retreat on a sandy seaside of Black Sea. I would say to me it was the most amazing time of the summer. During our mutual holiday we had a chance to be involved in or to get acquainted with artistic practices of each others, as each artist or artistic collective proposed collective action, or ritual or exercise for our daily life. Although three meals a day were provided, I proposed the feral forage hunt and tasting some wild fruits and herbs I had picked before in the region, as I consider food sharing or food production or search for food are something that may determine in a way the community unity (or define its boundary). A friend of mine Anna Andrzhievskaya has a similar practice of making distillates of local plants, so we held our first walk together searching for local edible herbs, fruits and berries.

picking and tasting wild cherry-plum

arugula (rocket salad) grows in the region everywhere

fresh and tasty nettle

wild sorrel

I should confess that my real point of being there was kind of challenging myself, my ability of acting and behaving as a part of a group, my social skills. As the time of our mutual holiday went by, and we experienced something new each day I was becoming aware of how precious these moments are to me and how pleasantly is to be a part of this group (not without some internal tension, but still very pleasantly!)

making an effort of passivity with 'circumnabulation' group (Zhenya Myakisheva, Leila Alieva, Darya Bresler, Vlada Milovskaya)

killing 'it' was our spontaneous performance with 'welcome to the dollhouse' group (Zhanna Dolgova and Ulyana Bychenkova)

searching for a new land with Vanessa Jesus

revealing my ecosexuality with 'union of convalescents' group (Natalia Nikulenkova, Egor Sofronov) and Anastasiya Kizilova

having fun

doing Soviet gymnastics with Yulia Spiridonova

practice by Emma Fuchs Sjövall

choir practice by Olia Sosnovskaya & Aleksei Borisionok

while our collective artistic body was getting stronger and healthier under the healing southern sun I was loosing any interest to the outside world, I d have preferred not to leave the territory of our recreation compound. The surrounding ambience btw was kind of traumatic as Vityazevo has all the negative traits of cheap small russian resort. Still we had great time on the town s beach, sunbathing or practicing during the daytime and partying in the evenings.

Camp as one arts residency was initiated by an art lover Diana Kazanchyan and her family, curated and produced by Masha Kotlyachkova, supported by ZIP group. I m very grateful to these people for the opportunity to be there, to be a part of our collective artistic body))

love ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ love

All fotos are made by our great photographer Alina Desyatnichenko. Thank u, Alina!