RED UTOPIA
«I was born in the Soviet Union. When it ceased to exist, I was 8 years old. I didn’t understand anything yet, but the people around me and my parents were in an inspired state. Everyone voted for the independence of Ukraine and there was a feeling that now we will finally live!
And then the hard 90s began. It was impossible to buy clothes and food in the store, we grew vegetables ourselves, we also made clothes ourselves. In those years, I thought that life is so hard and that I need to be able to knit. So I took knitting lessons for 3 years. Afterwards, I didn’t do anything for myself»
Every day began from August 24 – Independence day of Ukraine – Maryna was knitting the red flag in all shades of red, which was a preparation for the performance RED UTOPIA. Also on this day, she planted marigold flower seeds, which are folk flowers for Ukrainians. Maryna spent 77 hours knitting the flag in 22 days.
She filmed the knitting process on camera. She did a performance, winding the flag into a ball in parallel with the film about how she knitted the flag.
Location: Munich, Germany. Curator: Veronika Wagner. Duration: 77 hours in 22 days + 90 minutes.
September 15, 2022
Later, the Artist decided to continue working on the project.
On May 9, 2025 — the day when the Russian Federation, illegally declaring itself the successor of the Soviet Union, celebrated the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War — Semenkova once again began knitting the red Soviet flag from the yarn ball that had been created in the previous performance. The artist marked the size of the earlier ball by tracing it with a red pencil on a sheet of transparent plastic. This time, Maryna plans to expand the knitting by increasing the number of threads used.
She continues to create video documentation of the process and finds inspiration in the ever-changing patterns of the yarn ball.
The work is ongoing. Upon completion, the knitted flag will once again be unwound into a ball — this time of a larger scale.
MARYNA SEMENKOVA 