Eruption
by Olia Koval
This project can be seen this year at Circulation(s), which takes place from March 21 to May 17 in Paris, France.
The full program is available here.
40,000 hand-crafted red-winged bugs (also known as firebugs, gendarmes or soldier bugs) invade a living room — a metaphor for the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories. The room, once a shelter, turns hostile — occupied by beetles, echoing Ukraine’s forced coexistence with a new, unsettling reality. This pseudo-documentary project tells the story of the artist R.B., who one day wakes up to the sound of splintering wood and discovers a mass of bugs inside her room. The series includes a portrait of the witness, her room, her testimony, and a detailed depiction of the insect. 8 months of work, more than a week of installation. The work can exist either as a single photograph or as a reconstruction of a room in a public gallery or museum space.
“I woke up to the sudden crack of wood. Turning toward the sound, I froze in shock. The first thing I saw was a swarm of bugs erupting from the parquet — red, with an aggressively vivid color. I tried to remember their name. They could be firebugs, soldier bugs, or gendarmes all at once. The cloud of bugs settled on the furniture, crawled up the wallpaper, rummaging through things. The eruption of tens of thousands of bugs magnetized my gaze and paralyzed my body. It looked like a natural force, sweeping everything in its path. Strangely, I wasn’t afraid. It felt as if the bugs had been here since the beginning of the war.”
