Fault Lines of Empire traces the fractures left across Ukraine and Georgia by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the persistence of Russian influence.

Through the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the takeover of democratic institutions in Georgia, Russia aims to weave its web on what was once a part of its empire. In both regions, the fight for freedom has become existential. Through different means, communities aim to protect their national identities from the menace of the Kremlin, from the frontline villages of Donbas to the streets of Tbilisi.

This project seeks to show how those fractures manifest by shining a lens on the consequences of modern imperialism in the post-Soviet sphere. In Ukraine, dragon teeth and barbed wire weave through sunflower fields, beaches are filled with the echo of distant artillery, and civilians in frontline settlements live on borrowed time, with often no other choice but to walk away and evacuate.

In Georgia, the scars of the empire remain in sanatoriums repurposed as refugee camps for those fleeing decades-long wars, and in the slow corruption of the country’s institutions through violence and intimidation.

At the heart of this work are the people defying oppression, inhabiting these spaces and walking the grey line between survival and resistance. Soldiers, wounded veterans, members of marginalised communities, protesters, and all those making a conscious choice to endure the wrenching way their lives are woven into the path of history.

By weaving a series of fragments, and veering away from the spectacle of war, the intent is to create a portrait of what it means to live along the fault lines of empire. Landscapes, interiors, gestures of protest, portraits of resilience: these acts of resistance are floating at a crossroads of epochs, deeply contemporary yet rooted in unresolved histories.

Combining Ukraine and Georgia aims to put in perspective the current invasion of Ukraine, not simply an isolated conflict but a manifestation of Russian neo-imperialistic ambitions to regain a sphere of influence. Beyond the frontlines, these are the spaces where an existential struggle takes place to assert freedom in the shadow of a giant.