Elena Subach

»Grandmothers on the Edge of Heaven«

In her artistic practice, Elena is concerned with questioning religion, tradition, the construction of history and the consequences of soviet colonial pasts. Since 2018, Elena has developed these ideas in her project on Grandmothers on the Edge of Heaven, for which she is researching and photographing crowded religious celebrations and ceremonies in Ukraine. This project is both a lyrical dedication to her family, to the older generation in Ukraine, and a reflection on the gap between the generations and a search for what can unite these people. The urge to show this rich Ukrainian heritage through an artistic eye is present in everything she captures and the inspiration she gets from her motherland is endless.

In the modern world with rapidly developing technologies, the gap between generations is increasing rapidly. Nowadays, our grandmothers and we are separated not by two generations, but by an abyss. They do not always know what the Internet is and what is the value of information in the modern world. They live with their post-war (hier ist der 2. Weltkrieg gemeint) values, keep their savings in a scarf for a rainy day and procure products for the future.