State of Latitude: Khrystyna Kirik

The presentation of Khrystyna Kirik, a Ukrainian artist currently based in Kyiv, is the result of a collaboration between Conflux Festival and Construction, initiated and supported by Rotterdam Festivals. Construction is a festival that has taken place in Dnipro since 2014. The festival operates at the intersection of contemporary art and experimental music, activism, and the development of public spaces. Construction also serves as a platform for dialogue and discussion on issues that are relevant and important to local communities and Ukrainian society as a whole.

Specifically for Conflux 2025 Rites of Decay, she will present one of her latest works, State of Latitude (2024). Developed during the ∄ Echoes of the Earth residency in Kyiv, State of Latitude is a four-chapter audiovisual spatial installation that serves both as an artistic expression and an environmental testimony, documenting the devastating impact of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s southern and eastern landscapes.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, State of Latitude explores, on one hand, the magnitude and wide-scale destruction, and on the other, the vulnerability of the natural landscape in the face of human intervention. While the work reflects a sense of powerlessness in the midst of devastation, Khrystyna’s installation invites reflection and a deeper connection to the history of traumatized lands, emphasizing the need for cooperation and collective restoration to protect the environment. We asked her to share a few thoughts about her installation, and more specifically, how she believes it reflects this year’s Conflux theme: Rites of Decay.

Khrystyna Kirik: “In this installation, decay is both mourned and witnessed. It becomes a rite of acknowledgment, a way to hold space for what is vanishing, and to confront the scale of loss before it becomes irreversible.”

Khrystyna Kirik: “State of Latitude was born from a need to understand what is happening to Ukrainian land during the war. I spent time speaking with ecologists researching the deaths of dolphins in the Black Sea, the draining of the Kakhovka Reservoir, the destruction of soils. What struck me most was the story of the soil itself, the part we rarely see, yet which holds all life above it. I listened to their stories of wounded steppes, craters left by explosions, rare plants disappearing, and shifts in microclimates. These descriptions began to resonate in my mind, slowly transforming into music. In the installation, I try to capture this duality: the moment when the land still remembers life, but already carries death.”

Drawing on minimalism and traditions that regard sound as both a carrier of memory and presence, Khrystyna translated scientific data and ecological testimonies into sounds; numbers and maps took the shape of textures, movements, and tensions. The latter is key to her practice, where listening becomes a form of embodied knowledge.

As she clarified, the installation is supported by ecological science and the studies of several scientists, among them experts in steppe vegetation, ecosystem health, and the impact of war and destruction on nature itself. To mention a few: Oleksii Vasyliuk, Anna Kuzemko, Oleksandr Zinenko, Olena Marushevska, Iryna Zamuruieva, and Mykhailo Son.

Khrystyna Kirik: “For me, this piece is a listening ritual for the land. Decay here is not only the natural process of transformation, but also an accelerated, violent erasure: trenches carved into steppes, explosions turning rare chalk hills into open wounds, the silent spread of invasive species over once-diverse meadows. In this installation, decay is both mourned and witnessed. It becomes a rite of acknowledgment, a way to hold space for what is vanishing, and to confront the scale of loss before it becomes irreversible.

Khrystyna Kirik: “I want the body to feel it first. The sound surrounds you, moves through you. But beneath that sensory layer, there’s another, one that speaks about what’s hidden and unseen. Perhaps after this encounter, a person will see the ground differently. Perhaps they will feel its fragility. And maybe, this will change the way they listen to the world around them.”

For those seeking deeper insights, Khrystyna recommends reading the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Group reports and the research by Anna Kuzemko on steppe ecosystems, which she describes as both sobering and vital. Meanwhile, she is already working on her next project, this time using seismic data from war-affected regions of Ukraine and extreme low frequencies to create a tactile, subsonic experience that mirrors the earth’s own pulse: resilient yet painful at once.

In addition to her installation State of Latitude, which can be visited from Thursday to Sunday at Katoenhuis, Khrystyna Kirik will also perform on Friday evening, 19 September, at Brutus, and will give an artist talk on Saturday 20 September at Katoenhuis.

For more information about Khrystyna Kirik, visit her website, her Bandcamp account, and her Instagram page.