The following text is the second in a line of entries into Oksana Yushko's artist diary, a format we introduced to share more insights of her and Arthur Bondar's stay hosted by ARS BALTICA and the Nordkolleg Rendsburg. We hope you enjoy the read!
With the changing of the seasons, we watch migratory birds as they fly south. In the sky they soar on the winds, tracing invisible lines across the continents. Their journey is the ancient rhythm of the earth, calling them back to the other lands they also consider home.
In the world below, humans build walls out of words and territories out of ideas. What begins as communication can fragment into ideology, where words become weapons, sharpened by propaganda, dividing people and lands. In nature, no bird attacks another for having different thoughts, birds don't know this abstraction. They do not fight over invisible lines drawn by beliefs - they fight only when survival demands it.
Recently I visited Eckernförde, a cosy town at the Baltic Sea, for my artistic research. The seagulls attacked me while I was enjoying a walk by the sea and eating my delicious Fischbrötchen. They descend in a frenzy, drawn by the smell of food, by hunger, by the primal urge to claim what sustains them. There is no ideology in their beady eyes - only need. Their attack is a reminder that conflict in nature is tangible, direct.
I continued my walk in thought. While nature's creatures clash over the real, we often fight over the imagined. And unlike human wars of ideas, it fades as quickly as it begins. When the food is gone, so is the conflict, leaving the sky open and free for the next flight.
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For her current artistic research project "Where have all the birds gone?" exploring the links between migratory birds, language, territory and conflict, Oksana Yushko is looking for different global/local stories and possible collaborations with people willing to share their experiences on these topics. Scientists, ornithologists, birdwatchers, enthusiasts, socio-linguists, historians, artists and anyone interested in telling their stories are invited to write to oksanayushko[at]gmail.com.
