Beliaeva Julia

Let’s talk about anger.

In early mythologies, a goddess’s emotional independence — whether expressed through rage, grief, joy, or desire — was not a source of disapproval or shame but served cosmic balance. The Sumerian Inanna, the Hindu Kali, and the Norse Freyja embodied the encompassing duality of creation and destruction, representing love, fertility, and sexuality, yet also war and death. In such a worldview, the feminine principle was not confined to passive or submissive roles; instead, it held the greatest power — one that encompassed both life and death.

In war news, attention is usually focused on human lives, while nature and non-human beings often remain unseen. Yet in the face of existential crisis, the connection between humans and nature undeniably intensifies. We return to it when confronted with our own mortality. And finally, we begin to value what we once took for granted.

In her project “Mother of Deers,” Julia Beliaeva focuses on the victims who are biologically not human, emphasizing the importance of caring for every living being that has suffered from deliberate violence against life itself. The destruction of the Kakhovka Reservoir, the hunting of rare animals in occupied nature reserves, the starvation of caged creatures left behind, the devastation of Crimea’s natural environment during military actions… The list is terrifying, unspeakably real, and endless — like human indifference.

And tragically, even if someone like the Mother of Deers, an almighty goddess of salvation, were to exist, it would still be futile to treat the symptoms when destruction itself is carried out with conscious intent.

Excerpt from Kristina Borges’ text “The Siren Paradox”