Alexey Haraidanov Arctic artist Artur Chilingarov blacksmith Bolot Bochkarev climate change cold ColdArtist Cultural Expedition Avannaa Debdirge depression explorer flood Galina Shadrina Galya Morrell

Taatta Island

And now we are stuck. The road is gone and the water only keeps rising. Overnight we turned into islanders, even though our beautiful island can not be found on any map. Living well in Taatta means mastering the art of adaptation. In Taatta it’s a never ending process. People here adapt through their hard work, loyalty to informal basic values and flamboyant imagination. Praskovia Petrovna Matannakova is 93 years old and she still sews tableware and storage containers out of birch bark, runs a huge family and welcomes unsolicited strangers in the times of Flood. In excessive...

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Taattara = To Taatta

Some of us know how the M56 Kolyma Highway (a.k.a the Road of Bones that connects Yakutsk with Magadan via Pole of Cold) can be. In the winter it's a fictional place. One's exhale crackles in the air and the clothes hung on the rope to dry shatter easier than glass. In late January temperatures drop to – 60°C and in late March it gets only a little warmer. Summer lasts only two months with the first snow arriving in late September. So, we thought, since we've seen this road in the times of cold, why won't we try to travel on it in the summer when the temperaturures quickly rise to + 40°C,...

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