State of Latitude 

(fragment of the work)

The first environment is Sviati Hory in the northern part of Donetsk region, mainly along the left bank of the Siversky Donets River, with fragments on the right bank. The territories are within the districts of the Sviatohirsk Historical and Cultural Reserve, Bakhmut, and Kramatorsk. The area is about 40,589 hectares. Chalk mountains (chalk outcrops) have been preserved here, forming interesting landscapes - white chalk cliffs with steep precipices, and unique steppe and shrub communities. Particularly valuable are relict pine forests, which have remained from ancient times and grow specifically on chalk outcrops. Living conditions on chalk are extreme; only a small number of plants can withstand them. Most of them are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. This place has suffered significant destruction: fortifications and tranches are being overgrown with invasive species. A green or grayish carpet of vegetation covers white craters from explosions, many rare species are dying off, and in damaged areas, they are being replaced by alien species. The specificity of nature is being lost, and everything is becoming uniform.

The second environment is a system of lakes and islands known as Syvash in the Kherson region. This is a large system of shallow salt and bitter-salt bays, lagoons, islands, and spits, located between the mainland part of the Kherson region and the Crimean Peninsula. The area is approximately 52,154 hectares. Syvash has quite a few islands - both large and small. True steppes dominate here. They are very productive, and large herds of wild ungulates used to graze here, consuming the dense grass stands. Now these animals are extinct, and a thick layer of dry biomass accumulates in the steppe. Natural fires give a chance for life to rare species that would inevitably disappear in the thickets of shrubs. Fragile bulbous plants, such as the wild tulips, smolder through the layer of dry felt, and when the dry litter burns – their numbers explode. It is after fires that endless fields of tulips can be observed here. This paradox - beauty born from burning - transforms the landscape into a painful metaphor for war: red fields rise after the fire, life continues where destruction has passed. Currently, these territories are occupied.

The third environment is Velykyi Chapelskyi Pid, Kherson region. A huge bowl-shaped depression with a size of 4 by 6 km, serving as a biodiversity hotspot. It hosts species such as Scythian tulip, waterwort, Regel's onion, etc.. A characteristic plant of this area is the starfruit, which indeed has star-shaped fruits. Drier plants grow on the edges, meadows dominate toward the center, and the lowest areas are home to moisture-loving species. The pods flood once every 7–10 years — a phenomenon depending on specific winter conditions: a snowless winter with deep soil freezing, followed by a sudden snowmelt that cannot penetrate the frozen ground, causing the basin to fill with water. Numerous birds also migrate here. Many unique species found nowhere else in the world inhabit this ecosystem — now doubly endangered by expanding agricultural lands and occupation. The current state of Velykyi Chapelskyi Pod, located within the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve occupied by russia, remains unknown.

The fourth environment — Kamianska Sich, also in Kherson region — is a National Nature Park rich in plant diversity, with over 500 species of vascular plants. Among them are many rare and protected species — 46 are considered particularly valuable, and 19 are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine (including several feather grasses, tulips, crocuses, and adonises or pheasant's eye). Beyond flora, rare habitats occus here, especially steppe ones: unique petrophytic steppes on limestone outcrops with golden fescue and feather grass tussocks, and desert steppes covered in gray wormwood and astragalus. The 12,261-hectare territory is now mined, scarred by shelling, and littered with tons of military debris. Deep explosion craters cut through the soft soil; wildlife is vanishing, and the land remains polluted with heavy metals long after the blasts. During an expedition, ecologist Anna Kuzemko revealed the skeletons of two red-listed Sarmatian snakes killed by a shell explosion. Ambrosia and goosefoot now replace feather grass and tulips at the bottoms of the craters. In some scorched areas, a lone Hyacinthella leucophaea can still be found — pale-blue fragile flowers rising from the blackened steppe.

All ecological data were 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 visuals was created by Myk Rudik from u2203 studio led by Alen Has. The visual concept is based on real artifacts – archival photos and ecological data collected in the field. From these materials, changing landscapes are born, combining documentary and fantasy. The images reflect the fragility of the territories where destruction and renewal coexist.

The music features the traditional Ukrainian song ‘Ой, Боже, Боже, з такою годиною…’ from the 1996 Hilka collective’s Songs of the Ukrainian Steppes II. Once sung freely across the steppe, this melody now returns as a haunting echo, woven with electronic textures and environmental sounds – a reflection of how both the land and its voices have been transformed.

State of Latitude reveals the magnitude and wide scale of destruction while addressing the defenselessness of natural landscapes against aggressive intervention. The work connects this devastation to the broader history of traumatized and exploited lands, emphasizing the urgent need for expansive thinking and cooperation to restore and protect the environment.