Diana Thater: Chernobyl

In 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the northern Ukraine exploded. It allegedly released 100 times more nuclear debris than the Hiroshima bomb and was responsible for the deaths and illnesses of thousands of people. Today, the city of Pripyat, where the
powerplant workers lived, is a ghost town. Although completely deserted by humans, wild animals are settling there. Przewalski’s Horses, facing extinction in their native habitat in central Asia, now roam freely in this post-apocalyptic, post-human landscape.
Thater filmed in Pripyat, within the forbidden ‘alienation zone’, observing animals against the decomposing architecture.

Thater writes: ‘Chernobyl is falling into ruins, but still looks like a city; there are stores, apartment buildings, schools. Even though it’s deserted and falling apart, animals are moving into the city. On the one hand, you have a perfectly preserved Soviet city from
1970; on the other hand, this post-apocalyptic landscape where animals are living. Chernobyl represents the failure of a massive political system, a way of life, and of science. Yet nature continues to persist. Not because it wants or chooses to, but because it must.’ In addition to Chernobyl, we will be showing Thater’s installations Peonies (2011), Untitled Videowall (Butterflies) (2008), and Pink Daisies, Amber Room (2003).

Diana Thater is represented by 1301PE, Los Angeles, and Hauser and Wirth, London.