THE URAL OF THE MARI. THERE IS NO DEATH

What will happen after death and where do the dead go? Each culture provides its own answers, but they all tend toward the same goal: eternal life. In villages that still practice the traditional ways, people are certain of another world beyond the present one. They maintain a constant connection to it. The living influence the dead; and the dead, the living. Death is always so close and so possible, and the borders between the two worlds are so thin, that death—as a final departure and a complete disappearance—does not exist at all. Anthropologist Natalya Konradova and photographers Aleksander Sorin and Fyodor Telkov traveled for more than a year around the villages of the Mari living in the Ural. The result of this research is a multimedia project that includes photos, videos, objects, and installations. Project organizer: Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center. Supported by: Khamovniky Foundation, The Centre for Documentary Photography  Fotodoc.