Nothing can beat  

2022 — 2023

The text is part of the Women in the North project initiated by curator Maria Lind. This long-term initiative brings together colleagues from different countries with the shared focus to delve into the legacy of women who have shaped the cultural and social landscape of the North. Project was founded in 2022 and was driven by the desire to present people rather than “sources”; the desire to “revitalize the archives, ” and to show the living connections behind any profound research, which are often left in the shadows.

Women of the North: Chapter One (2022–2023) by Olga Shirokostup and Ilmira Bolotian is dedicated to the study of the personal archive of Evgenia Patsia (1945–2022), a researcher, journalist, and museum professional, who worked on the Kola Peninsula for more than thirty years.

The project consisted of two parts. The first, entitled Storytellers as Activists, is an artistic research project by Olga Shirokostup. Shirokostup has been researching Patsia’s network of informants with the goal to show how scholarly, activist, and literary activities intertwined throughout her life. The second part of the project presented Ilmira Bolotyan’s artistic texts inspired by her impressions from working with Patsia’s archive and her travels to the Kola Peninsula and northern Sweden.