Ukraina Pasport is a journey to a broken country, one longing for the West, yet oozing post-Soviet decadence; a place where the echo of a revolution can hardly be heard, the colour of which says absolutely nothing. A country hard to locate, yet paradoxically a place we recognize as soon as we get there.
There, faces turn towards something which cannot be seen, but which we can sense as a haunting presence. Voluptuous bikini-clad women, cosmonauts, bears and unicorns help craft an imaginary world, one that looks as if brought to life from a child’s dream. Nevertheless, all is shrouded in an aura of loss, bitterness and helplessness.
Fiesta Ediciones publishes Federico Clavarino’s magnific series, Ukraina Pasport, a very special book inviting us to cross the borders between past and future, childhood and adult age, reality and imagination. A journey in which Federico uses Ukrania’s political and social reality to talk about nostalgia and transformation.