City

I was born and raised in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan. My dad is from Kukmor. From childhood, I have fragmented memories of a Tatar village with wooden houses, rumbling trams, and forested hills. And, of course, of Kukmor felt boots.
In college, I met a classmate who came from Kukmor. Based on my childhood memory, I called it a village. This sparked a conflict, which she still brings up in our conversations:
«Kukmor isn’t a village!»
Since my last visit, the urban settlement has become a city.
And my mom now wears felt boots with a rubber sole.

Through the lens of personal experience in my work, I explore the phenomenon of small towns—the contrast between their formal and administrative transformation «on paper» versus their external appearance and societal perception. I captured the current landscape of Cookmor: quiet, poignant, and so unlike the imagery of a modern urban panorama. The piece is printed on a hand-felted sheet of fine felt—a material that connects the city’s history, its image, and its folk culture.

The Valenok—as a symbol on the city’s coat of arms, a metaphor for its change in administrative status, a calling card, a stereotypical generalization. The appearance of the sole on the Valenok was a consequence of changing climate conditions in cities and new living standards. The historical heritage of the merchant and manufactory settlement is reduced to a single everyday item, and is lost within it. In the mass consciousness remains only a label reflecting an image, but failing to encompass the entire essence. Nevertheless, it is a cause for pride—something native and heartwarming.