SORTIROVOCHNAYA
is the place where I live, where many layers intersect: from the creaking 24/7 railway tracks and gardeners heading to their dachas to the weekend social flea market with local St. Petersburg hermits and “holy fools, ” a garbage dump with a cemetery of discarded things to cosmic bacteria from local sewage water samples, from a vegetable market to solitary trees left over from a once-blooming apple orchard. I started working on the project in February 2022, when one day I was passing by Sortirovochnaya Station and accidentally found felt boots with an icon on the side of a dirty road. Sortirovochnaya became my home. And even something more. Probably because I found my reflection in these people. My roots are from the border zone between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Dagestan, but I was born in Leningrad. Who am I? Tsakhurka? Azerbaijani? Russian? Where are my roots? Muslim? Orthodox? A Petersburger? A newcomer? How does self-identification happen? Where is the line between one’s own and someone else’s? What is my home like?
“Sortirovochnaya” is a multimedia documentary multi-layered project consisting of photographs taken on film and pinholes created from objects found at a flea market, video and a soundscape of the place (audio recordings of noises: the railway, the voices of people — prototypes of the characters in the film).
Pinholes created from the artefacts found at flea market:
“DREVO” Exhibition
“Sortirovochnaya” project was presented as a sound art object at the collective “Drevo” exhibition at “Shkaf” library and art residence, St. Petersburg, May 15 — July 31, 2024.
Artist talk at the opening of the “Drevo” exhibition, “Shkaf” library and art residence, St. Petersburg, May 15, 2024.
Photo: Ekaterina Edeleva.
Project Author: Sofia Melikova
Project Curator: Igor Elukov
Exhibition curator: Anastasiya Sergeeva
Sound engineers: Lev Petrov, Alexey Nikola.