HOME. MEMORIES
Architects: Slava Balbek, Anastasiia Partyka, Alyona Tryhub
Production: Dmytro Zinoviev and the Wonder Workshop bureau
3D artists: Nik K, Valerii Stefanov
Graphic designers: Dasha Levchuk, Oleksandra Zavada
Project manager: Arina Petrenko
Сopywriter: Taisiia Kudenko
Comms support: Yevheniia Ryzhak
Sculptor: Marusia Sinkevich
Project Year: 2023
Location: Vernadsky research base, Galindez Island, Antarctica
Photo credits: Slava Balbek
Photo retouching: Maryan Beresh
Production: Dmytro Zinoviev and the Wonder Workshop bureau
3D artists: Nik K, Valerii Stefanov
Graphic designers: Dasha Levchuk, Oleksandra Zavada
Project manager: Arina Petrenko
Сopywriter: Taisiia Kudenko
Comms support: Yevheniia Ryzhak
Sculptor: Marusia Sinkevich
Project Year: 2023
Location: Vernadsky research base, Galindez Island, Antarctica
Photo credits: Slava Balbek
Photo retouching: Maryan Beresh
ABOUT | TASK | CHALLENGES | CONCEPT | PRODUCTION | IMPLEMENTATION |
FINALE | TEAM
ABOUT
‘Home. Memories’ is an art installation for the Ukrainian Vernadsky Research Base commissioned by the National Antarctic Research Center.
Our team created the design, while the Wonder Workshop bureau was in charge of the construction. The project was initiated and supported by the Silpo retail chain.
TASK
The Ukrainian Vernadsky Research Base is located on the island of Galindez, east of Winter Island in the Argentine Islands. An old defunct fuel tank located on the territory of the research base is one of the very first things seen by the approximately four thousand tourists visiting the Vernadsky base every year during the
Antarctic summer. The tank appears in most of the photos made on-site.
Our team was asked to reimagine the fuel tank's appearance and function: to turn it into an object that is attractive to tourists and is organically integrated into the Antarctic landscape. The installation should also acquaint visitors with Ukrainian culture, as this would be the first point of contact with Ukraine for many.
CHALLENGE
Severe weather conditions had to be considered when designing the installation. The main prerequisites for the construction are resistance to low temperatures (from +5 to -30°C), strong winds (up to 40 m/s) and almost 300 days of precipitation per year.
In addition to the station's 12 residents, the island is home to more than 3,500 penguins. The installation had to be safe for the local fauna but, at the same time, sturdy enough to withstand the attacks of penguins, who love to disassemble constructions into bits used for nests.
The issue of transportation and assembly also posed a challenge. The installation, made in Kyiv, was to be assembled on-site without professional equipment and contractors. Maintenance also had to be considered: the installation's upkeep, such as removing frozen snow, should not be time-consuming.
CONCEPT
The Vernadsky Research Base is a home away from home for our polar researchers. Given that, we proposed to create an installation named ‘Home. Memories‘ inspired by a typical Ukrainian house – one associated with warmth, comfort and grandmotherly coziness. For our researchers, it is an evergreen memory of home. For tourists – an inspiration to start planning their trip to Ukraine itself.
We analyzed houses in various areas of Ukraine and compiled a composite image – with a slate roof, chimney and distinctive windows. It was decided to recreate this image with the help of a thin, detailed frame constructed around the fuel tank. According to our plan, the installation should resemble a pencil sketch: as if someone, reminiscing, sketched their childhood home from memory.
A mini-exhibition was placed on the tank's walls, with boards displaying symbolic mementos encapsulated in epoxy resin, such as a spruce branch, a fragment of a vyshyvanka and a sample of the UNESCO-listed Kosiv painted ceramics.
PRODUCTION
Production of the installation began in December 2021. The basis of the design was a lightweight but sturdy frame made of 15 mm stainless steel pipes. The podium around the structure was made of welded galvanized lattice flooring, so most precipitation flows through.
While the Magic Workshop worked on the structure, we experimented with epoxy resin, searched memorabilia and laser-cut the acrylic boards.
The ‘time capsules’ were filled with epoxy resin and left to set. After a few days, the boxes were removed from the molds, milled and polished until they became totally transparent.
After a test assembly, the installation was disassembled and sent to Odesa, where it was loaded onto the Noosphere icebreaker. While the crew was preparing the vessel’s first voyage under the Ukrainian flag, we sneaked in for a tour and looked at it from the inside.
On January 28, 2022, the icebreaker, along with the installation, left for Antarctica. In March, our CEO Slava Balbek and the head of Wonder Workshop, Dmytro Zinoviev, were supposed to make their way to the station to install the structure. However, the implementation had to be postponed due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.
IMPLEMENTATION
In the end, the project was implemented only a year later: in January 2023, Slava and Dmytro traveled to the station via a special invitation issued by the National Antarctic Science Center.
The journey from Kyiv to Galindez Island, a whopping 15,000 kilometers, took more than a week. And it took two more to set up the installation – Slava and Dmytro located the structural elements that were shipped via the Noosphere icebreaker last spring and promptly began installation under strict penguin supervision.
The old fuel tank was painted Antarctic blue. A podium was erected around the installation, allowing visitors to walk around. The structure was also reinforced to withstand ice and strong gusts of wind.
The installation was supplemented with inscriptions, as well as an exhibit from the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, containing a replica of a special silver coin. The original, embossed with a trident, dates back to the time of Volodymyr the Great and is part of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine collection.
FINALE
On March 12th, commemorating Volodymyr Vernadsky's 160th birth anniversary, the exposition was complemented with a new exhibit. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, gifted the Vernadsky station a commemorative plaque dedicated to the world-renowned scientist.
A year after the project’s launch, the installation took on a brand new meaning. For millions of people forced to flee their hometowns and villages due to Russian aggression, returning home became their biggest dream, an incentive not to give up hope even in the darkest times.
We believe that the war will end in our victory, and Ukrainians will create new memories from the safe haven of their home. And all the way in Antarctica, for researchers and tourists alike, our house will continue to stand strong, a true memento of Ukraine.
TEAM
