BRIGHT ROOM (2024)

The Vesta Center helps with rehabilitation, socialization and employment of disabled people with mental disabilities. The main branch of the organization is located in Yugorsk. It's a small Russian town in Western Siberia, where I was born and haven't been for 10 years. I still can't understand why exactly I was interested in the activities of the organization. There are no people with mental disorders among my relatives and I have never worked in this field. Despite this, for some reason this topic attracted me so much that I became a volunteer. For one month, the rehabilitation center became a second home for me and its guests became close friends. Many of them have mental development like little children. As a rule, they are afraid of loud noises and sudden movements. Social pedagogues are especially careful with these kids. They have daily training sessions, creative tasks and exercises. Among the wards there are those who are more adapted to society and even partially involved in adult life. At the center «Vesta» there is a workshop where some of the inmates work. The children make with their own hands useful things in everyday life and various kinds of decorative jewelry. For example, Valeria is engaged in embroidery, Sasha weaves wonderful baskets, and Katya sculpts figures and dishes from plaster. The bright rooms of Vesta always have their own special atmosphere, an alternative reality with its own canons and rules. A parallel world where adults do only what brings them pleasure and are always kind to each other.