Red 🧶 Utopia

The story featuring Maryna Semenkova, an Ukrainian artist who has been forced displacement and lives in Berlin, Germany since Russia invaded her homeland of Odessa. This poignant story reveals the challenges she has faced, while also celebrating her rich cultural heritage and demonstrating how art can provide refuge and serve as a form of resistance.

Red Utopia is an ongoing performative project that unfolds through the repetitive act of knitting and unravelling a red textile in the shape of a flag. This flag becomes a potent symbol of both despair and hope, linking the artist's personal narrative to the collective memory of a nation in turmoil and illustrating the complexities of identity and belonging. The story began in Munich in 2022 in response to the Russian Federation's attempts to revive Soviet imperial structures and reconstruct a system in which human life is subordinated to ideology. Rather than reproducing the flag as a symbol of power, Semenkova engages with it as a material and process a structure that can be built, undone and reconfigured. Through her artistic journey, Semenkova invites audiences to reflect on the past while considering the present circumstances of war and conflict. The red textile serves as both a medium for artistic expression and a canvas for dialogue about freedom, exile and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

Through the slow, repetitive gesture of knitting, the work reflects on the persistence of colonial systems and the tragic violence of imposed historical repetition in an intricate manner. The act of unravelling is equally significant and profound: a deliberate gesture of deconstruction and introspective reflection that offers the possibility of transformation into something new and meaningful.

During the first iteration (2022), the artist knitted a vibrant red flag over 77 hours across 22 days, beginning on 24 August — Ukraine’s Independence Day — a date of great significance and symbolism. The entire process was meticulously documented on video, capturing not just the physical act, but also the emotional and historical weight behind it. In the final dramatic performative act, the beautifully knitted object was unravelled back into a striking red ball of yarn, while the video of its creation was simultaneously shown. This powerful gesture established the core structure of the project: a continuous cycle of construction and dissolution, presence and reflection, creativity and its inevitable undoing. It questions the very nature of existence and the stories woven into our fabric.

The second iteration (2025 - ongoing), began on 9 May 2025, a date that the Russian state has used extensively for propaganda purposes to reinforce the victory narrative of World War II. By selecting this date, the project critically addresses the manipulation of historical memory and its impact on the perpetuation of current violence.

Using the same ball of yarn created during the first iteration, the artist re-engaged with the knitting process, this time integrating new threads and enlarging the scale of the piece. The material embodies the memories of the previous cycle, and its alteration signifies progression rather than repetition. At this stage, the knitted piece is almost finished. It is designed to be unravelled once more in a live performance to generate a larger yarn ball and usher in the next stage of the cycle.

At its essence, Red Utopia is a performative exploration, addressing both political and existential dimensions within a framework of repetition. The work contemplates the profound human tendency to perpetuate harmful patterns even when the consequences are fully understood and starkly evident. Power dynamics, much like individual actions, often revert to familiar structures, reinforcing patterns that are deeply ingrained in memory and the physical self-like an ever-revolving door that traps its occupants within established roles and narratives. The project simultaneously poses two essential questions: can introspection truly disrupt this incessant cycle of repetition, and what role does conscious awareness play in the complex process of healing traumatised communities?  The red yarn ball is rich in symbolism, representing a vast realm of possibilities where creation takes on any form. However, the artist repeatedly reconstitutes the same object, revealing the multifaceted challenges of transcending inherited frameworks and highlighting the potential for transformation alongside the weight of historical baggage.

Performance is the central medium of the artwork. The act itself sustained, repetitive and time-based  becomes a way of thinking. Video and photography are not just secondary documentation; they are integral to the project. They establish a parallel temporal layer, enabling the process to be witnessed, repeated and contemplated. The work encompasses material traces (e.g. a yarn ball and size markings), live performance (e.g. knitting and unravelling), video documentation of the process and photographic representations of transitional forms.

Red Utopia is envisioned as a long-term performative cycle that stretches the boundaries of artistic expression. Each iteration revisits the same knitting and unravelling gesture while progressively enlarging the yarn ball through the accumulation of new materials. As time passes, the project grows not only in physical size, but also in conceptual depth, continuously exploring the themes of historical memory and embodied repetition. Rather than striving for a conclusive resolution, the work remains deliberately in a state of perpetual flux, constantly moving between the dualities of construction and dissolution, memory and transformation. This invites the audience to engage with the complexities of their own narratives and truths.