this land was made for you and me

lesia maruschak

16 – 25.10.2020

exhibition held within the framework of the InCadaques photography festival

“Esta tierra fue hecha para ti y para mí” – This Land Was Made For You And Me – is a project about the thousands of Ukrainian immigrants who responded to the Canadian government’s call to colonise the Canadian prairies in search of freedom. My family was among them.

More than a decade later, during the “Great War” of 1914-18, they became known as “enemy aliens”. The reason for this designation was that most Ukrainians came from countries at war with Britain and the British Empire, including Canada. The Canadian government incarcerated 8,579 men, women and children in 24 internment camps across the country.

The prolonged and continuous practice of detaining civilians without trial is a procedure liberal democracies often resort to during crises, believing that the suspension of rights and freedoms is necessary in the short term to address perceived threats at any given time.

My creative process testifies to the intimacy of the content. Instead of creating infinitely reproducible images, they are unique handmade prints with a material value. I construct works from black and white pigmented prints, sometimes hand-painted, and coloured films, frosted or hand-gilded in 23k gold. Its materiality claims the photograph as a unique souvenir of limited availability in the pre-digital age. It is an exploration of the role of photography when questions of history, identity, ethics, place, aesthetics and documentation converge. Composed of photographs, films, archival documents and new and reinterpreted texts, the project was developed in collaboration with art historian Taous Dahmani (Panthéon-Sorbonne / Oxford), Library Archives Canada, the Canadian War Museum and its staff. This land was made for you and for me it is an icon that claims the relevance of history. Here is their story. This is my story. This is our story.

Lesia Maruschak, 2020