The Promzona project began as the artist’s family saga. Three generations of his ancestors worked at the chemical plants of Dzerzhinsk. In the 1930s, they took part in the Industrialisation drive, building production facilities. During World War II, they manufactured chemical warfare agents. In the postwar years, they produced materials for various sectors of the national economy.
With Perestroika and the decentralisation of the economy, these plants were privatised. Many were soon deemed inefficient and shut down.
Today, all that remains of the once vast and powerful industrial complex are hectares of wasteland, ruins reclaimed by nature, and abandoned chemical waste tanks.
The project consists of six parts: Traces, Wall of Fame, Museum, Ruins, Sand, and Cinema Hall.
The latter features three films about the history of the industrial zone. These films combine panoramic aerial footage shot from a drone with personal accounts from the artist’s relatives who once worked at the plants—merging a bird’s-eye perspective with intimate microhistory.