state of latitude (2025)

State of Latitude (2024) is a four-part audiovisual installation by Khrystyna Kirik. The work focuses on four natural territories in Ukraine affected by Russia’s full-scale invasion: Sviati Hory, Syvash, Velykyi Chapelskyi Pid, and Kamianska Sich. The project was developed during the Echoes of the Earth residency in Kyiv in collaboration with the u2203 studio and ecologist Anna Kuzemko.

The first chapter addresses the Sviati Hory area in the northern part of Donetsk region along the Siversky Donets River, covering approximately 40,589 hectares. The territory includes chalk outcrops, relict pine forests, and specific steppe and shrub communities. Military activity has altered the area through the construction of fortifications and the formation of explosion craters, accompanied by the spread of invasive plant species and the decline of rare flora.

The second chapter focuses on the Syvash system in Kherson region, a network of shallow salt and bitter-salt bays, lagoons, islands, and spits covering approximately 52,154 hectares. The area is dominated by steppe ecosystems. The disappearance of large wild ungulates has led to the accumulation of dry plant biomass. Natural fires play a role in vegetation dynamics, particularly affecting bulbous plant species. The territory is currently under occupation.

The third chapter examines Velykyi Chapelskyi Pid, a bowl-shaped depression approximately 4 × 6 km in size, located in Kherson region. The area functions as a biodiversity hotspot with rare and endemic plant species and serves as a stopover for migratory birds. Flooding occurs every 7–10 years depending on winter conditions. The site is part of the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve and is currently under occupation, limiting access and ecological monitoring.

The fourth chapter focuses on Kamianska Sich National Nature Park in Kherson region, covering 12,261 hectares. The park contains over 500 species of vascular plants, including 46 protected species and 19 listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. The area has been affected by landmines, shelling, and contamination from military debris. Evidence of wildlife mortality and replacement of native plant species by invasive species has been recorded in impacted zones.

Ecological information for the project was collected through interviews with Anna Kuzemko, Doctor of Biological Sciences and leading researcher in the Department of Geobotany and Ecology at the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. She is also a member of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS) and co-founder and board member of the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UNCG).

The visual component was created by Myk Rudik (u2203 studio) led by Alen Has using field data, archival photographs, and ecological records. The sound component incorporates the traditional Ukrainian song “Oi, Bozhe, Bozhe, z takoiu hodynoiu…” from the 1996 Hilka collective’s Songs of the Ukrainian Steppes II, combined with electronic and environmental sounds.

State of Latitude focuses on landscapes radically transformed by war, capturing them not as symbols but as specific places with their own rhythms, processes, and limits of survival, some of which remain inaccessible to direct study today.