Finding the true North in Russia – UnCapitals Tour 2015

UnCapitals

As most of Western mass media is obsessed by the notion of Putin being a new tsar, the Russians a menacing threat to world peace and what not, there exists a reality in the periphery outside the realm of straw men, spin doctors and red herrings. In this reality people live, exist and create irrespectively of power politics and propaganda. I travelled to the North and discovered a glimpse of what periphery can and could mean, if even just for a flickering moment in time.

Text and photos by Alexander Viken, (Vova Nootk, Russian grafitti artist on the above picture)

«Armed with cameras, pens, spray cans and prying eyes, we roam directionless the streets of Apatity, to us they lead to nowhere. We spend hours in a youth community centre, trying to create something meaningful in the intense hours we have at our disposal this weekend. What is there to create really?

We have thrown ourselves into an artificial situation, but at the same time we all feel a direct familiarity with each other which would not have come about had we met under normal social circumstances. Here we are all intimate strangers.»

Read the full story here