WORD DEPTH
2026
archive, a mystification
2026
archive, a mystification
The project presents a fictional archive, a mystification styled as the field notes of an unknown scholar-scribe. It documents and sacralizes the disappearing Novgorod dialect, reconstructing the visual reality of the 13th–14th centuries through the structure of language and graphic symbols.
At the core of the concept lies the conviction that a mode of thinking is embedded within words. Here, nouns conceal action within their structure, while verbs preserve the magical and mundane meanings of a bygone era.
The archive consists of five thematic fragments that unveil the life of the ancient city through its lexicon: the commercial life of Novgorod (the language of markets, contracts, and trade routes), the artisan’s craft (the terminology of master craftsmen), the domestic order (the vocabulary of home and kinship), the healer’s herbal (the language of incantations), and the archive of lost words (the reconstruction of discovered birch-bark manuscripts).
The aim of the project is to create visual material that functions as a "portal" into the past — an encounter with ancient Novgorod through the very texture of speech of the Novgorod lands of the 11th–15th centuries.
The project captures the complex linguistic landscape of medieval Novgorod, which includes: Church Slavonic (the language of high book culture); the supra-dialectal form of Old Russian (the administrative and official language); the Old Pskov dialect; East Novgorod vernaculars; and the dialect of Novgorod itself and its surrounding regions.
At the core of the concept lies the conviction that a mode of thinking is embedded within words. Here, nouns conceal action within their structure, while verbs preserve the magical and mundane meanings of a bygone era.
The archive consists of five thematic fragments that unveil the life of the ancient city through its lexicon: the commercial life of Novgorod (the language of markets, contracts, and trade routes), the artisan’s craft (the terminology of master craftsmen), the domestic order (the vocabulary of home and kinship), the healer’s herbal (the language of incantations), and the archive of lost words (the reconstruction of discovered birch-bark manuscripts).
The aim of the project is to create visual material that functions as a "portal" into the past — an encounter with ancient Novgorod through the very texture of speech of the Novgorod lands of the 11th–15th centuries.
The project captures the complex linguistic landscape of medieval Novgorod, which includes: Church Slavonic (the language of high book culture); the supra-dialectal form of Old Russian (the administrative and official language); the Old Pskov dialect; East Novgorod vernaculars; and the dialect of Novgorod itself and its surrounding regions.
email: grushenkova.ad@gmail.com
