Digital shadows of words / 2024
This project was created during the North Caucasus residency in 2024. My aim was to create an artistic exploration of the Chechen poet Arbi Mamakaev. I began my work by looking up information about him on the internet, but I did not find much.
The biography of Arbi Mamakaev tells the story of a man who lived during a time of great transition. He was born in 1918, and after the death of his father, he was placed in an orphanage. Later, he joined a workers' faculty and eventually found work at a newspaper. Arbi’s first collection of poems was published in 1934. His life was progressing well until 1941. That year, however, he was arrested, accused of a crime, and exiled to Magadan, where he remained until 1956. During those fifteen years, the poet did not write a single line. He was rehabilitated and returned home in 1957. He passed away in 1958, barely reaching the age of 40.
We were able to gather more information about the poet during a second trip to the village of Nadterechnoye in the Chechen Republic. Arbi’s son Eduard created a local history museum dedicated to his father. He preserved many artifacts, such as an album of photographs — the so-called “Magadan Album” — which Arbi filled with pictures while living in exile in Kolyma.
As a result, the memorial museum houses all available material on Arbi and serves both to preserve and to perpetuate the poet’s legacy. Arbi left behind tangible remnants, and it is through these that his identity is gradually revealed. These remnants lie at the heart of memorial culture, and his story continues to be reproduced according to its traditional canons.
As a representative of the “digital turn” generation, I will be remembered more through media. I belong to a different era than Arbi Mamakaev, yet eventually, our stories intersected.
This research analyzes how both traditional and contemporary memorial rituals approach remembrance, preservation, and the reproduction of historical events. It reflects on our memories of the past and the legacies we leave behind. What digital traces do we create today that will help future generations remember us?
In this work, I also engage in a dialogue with Arbi Mamakaev — giving him a voice in the present and integrating him into the digital realm. In turn, I, too, become drawn into his historical narrative — through letters to his second wife Maya and his son, and through the papers and personal items he carried with him during those dreadful fifteen years.
Description
The project consists of
- digital photos
- digital collages
- artist photobook
Publication Eye of photography
Publication PrivatePhotoReview