“The Long Way Home. Chapter 3”

2018 – 2023

Installation

Video, embroidered fabric (found in abandoned Palesse house), candles, lighter

Size variable

From 2018 to the present day Masha Maroz has been working on a monograph researching the status of modern ritual veneration of roadside crosses of the Palesse region (southern part of Belarus). She has traveled thousands of kilometers across the country, visited hundreds of villages photographing  more than 430 crosses. 

These crosses  are a phenomenon of material and spiritual culture, which contains important evidence of the ethnic history of Belarus. They  are excellent examples of traditional art, which often still reflect the experience of entire groups of woodcarvers, weavers, embroiderers, and blacksmiths. This living  tradition acquires new and more specific features every year, transforming under the pressure of time and circumstances. Bearers of ancient knowledge, craftswomen and masters are leaving this world, and the collective experience manifests itself with new forms.