Being in isolation in the Leningrad Region, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the European University in Saint Petersburg Oksana Timofeeva took part in the online project “Letters Against Separation” — a collective project on the E-flux conversations platform, in which authors from different parts of the world reflect on how Covid-19 influenced them, their loved ones, their cities and their work through a series of short, diary-like letters.
In her notes, Oksana Timofeeva talks about how she and her companion managed to return from Germany to Russia at the very time when air traffic between the countries almost stopped, and about her life in isolation in a rural house without heating and water supply (with a well and firewood).
The creator of the project, a famous artist, critic and philosopher, Hito Steyerl, said that the “Letters Against Separation” were designed to bring people in the same situation around the world and offer them a way to stay together. “Letters Against Separation” is loosely based on Boccaccio’s Decameron, which is structured as a mise-en-abyme—a story written by a group of young people sheltering in a secluded castle during the plague. In total, six authors from China, Mexico, Italy, South Korea, Great Britain, and Russia took part in the project.