In a compelling Episode 59 of her podcast series, Patrycja Rozwora talks with Yuriy Biley and Anton Varga, two members of the Ukrainian art collective Open Group, that represented Poland at the 60th La Biennale di Venezia. Their latest work, ‘Repeat after Me II’, delves deep into the realities of war and the profound impact it has on our societies.
‘Repeat after Me II’ is a striking audiovisual installation that takes a unique and haunting approach to storytelling. It serves as a collective portrait of civilian witnesses to the ongoing war in Ukraine, shedding light on human experiences often overshadowed by the all-encompassing flood of visual documentation of the conflict shared across the internet and other media.
The centrepieces of the installation are two video works, created by the collective in 2022 and 2024, that feature the voices of war survivors. But what sets this piece apart is its distinctive format: the Ukrainian refugees recall the sounds of weaponry they’ve encountered, reconstructing the auditory landscape of war. These sounds are transformed by the artists into a kind of karaoke, inviting the public to mimic them and learn the skill which could potentially save our lives in a dystopian future.
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