Violently Happy
by Alec Von Bargen
portfolio special mention call 'URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2020', 2020
Category: People and Communities
The Russo-Ukrainian War is entering its 8th year, bringing devastating repercussions for the inhabitants of the areas in conflict. The young and strong have long since migrated to larger cities or are fighting to defend their country, leaving the elderly abandoned, forgotten, left-behind to survive the memories of what once was. Particularly in the buffer zones between Mariupol and Donetsk, clusters of third age citizens barely subsist in a perennial state of depression brought about by the constant shelling, the lack of running water or electricity, the never-ending lockdown, the lack of medics and pharmaceutical supplies; bombed streets have blocked suppliers from distributing provisions. Like ghosts, they wander the empty streets, floating, in search of someone to aid them, to see them, to hear their stories of what once was.