Transnistria

A Visual Fairy Tale Inspired by the Loneliness of Isolation and a Beautiful Decadent River.

By Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko:

Looking into the Red Book of Transnistria, we found an endangered species: the White Water Lily, from which we began to build our story. We were going often to the flea market to find inspiration and materials for the costumes and props, and one day we met Elena Nikolaevna, a former biology teacher. Elena shared with us that during the pandemic she was left alone at home, and all this time she had been knitting carpets.

Time passed and we already had almost all the rugs and costumes, for the Water Lily story, but one day we left the forty pieces of carpets drying in the yard and all the props were stolen from us. Oddly enough, this was a positive turning point, because there was actually a lack of connection between the river and the carpets that we were creating. That’s when we remembered Elena from the market and came back to her and invited her to be a part of our project.

But…try explaining to an older woman what crazy concepts you have in your head and why they are so important… So we created a fairy tale out of our concept and we invited Elena to add more to the story. She was great and gave us a list of references, and advised us to go to the House of Creativity. At the end we created a manifesto out of the story, a social theme:

On one side, we literally stand on the carpet, unaware that on the other side there can be a living, sacred object.

In dedication to the Dniester River, which originates from the Carpathian mountains and flows into the Black Sea. The river has its problems: excessive sand mining, abandoned ships, floods and erode landfills.