Name: 0x93_DEC_21 by Kyrylo S
Duration: 7 min 16 s
Description: recorded live on a small modular system + some effects in december 2021 in kyiv, edited for length march 2022

recorded live on a small modular system + some effects in december 2021 in kyiv, edited for length march 2022

0x93_DEC_21

A Monument to Irpin River is a sound installation based on field recordings of Irpin River located in the Kyiv region. The piece attempts to reflect on the commemoration practices of the ongoing war, as well as on the, previously dominating in the public space of Ukraine, Soviet commemorative practices and the narratives that they have spread and normalized, using commemoration as an ideological tool.

When imagining the future in which Ukraine wins the war, a question appears — how will we commemorate this war? In this piece I attempt to drift away from the human-centered and victory-manifesting monuments and turn the viewer’s gaze to the landscape within which we live, the river, acknowledging the help that it provided us with, and the damage that it had been through.

In 1941, the first defense line of Kyiv passed along the Irpin River. In 2022, history repeated itself: the detonation of part of the dam on the Irpin River and the flooding of its floodplain became a decisive moment in the battle for Kyiv. The river was used as a tool of resistance, cutting off the enemy's possible way to the capital. Knowing that, I keep thinking: what if there was no river at all? What if the river had dried up at that time? What would be the turn of events in that case?  An audio piece created using field recordings of Irpin River and played from a speaker on a pedestal is an attempt to reflect on this topic.

A Monument to Irpin River — Live @ HAU Berlin

Trapped in Air is a site-specific audio installation located at the House of Craftsmen’s Association (Handwerkervereinshaus, now Sophiensaele). This place used to be a place of forced labor, where among others, Ukrainian women used to be exploited as forced workers during World War II. There is almost no information about those people — the only thing we know is that they worked for a factory that produced high-precision grinding machines and small armaments. The sound installation is based on both real and fictional letters of Ukrainian Ostarbeiters, which highlights the impossibility of fully recovering the memory about them

Trapped In Air

Сердечне Запрошення (Cordial Invitation)

Fear Of Turning Into Stone

It passes

Out of (apnea)

The other's will

Vom Wesen

Everlasting presence

"Salvation" is a sound composition based on data obtained from the eponymous painting by Augusta Kochanowska.

Augusta Kochanowska (1868-1927) is known as the first and one of the most important artists of Bukovina (a historical region, variously described as in Central or Eastern Europe). Despite this, we now know only a few facts about her life. It is not known where most of her works are, the exact date of the artist's birth has been established only recently (dates like 1863, 1866 and 1868 can be found in various sources). Olga Kobylyanska, Ukrainian writer, with whom the artist has been close friends since childhood, describes her as a delicate and romantic person who reacts sharply to all life events. Kochanowska's most subtle personality is manifested in her painting "Salvation".

"Salvation" is a work of the last year of the artist's life. By converting each of his pixels into a note using a computer algorithm, I created an electronic composition that became a sound transcription of Kokhanovskaya's painting. By placing this sound installation in the hall of the Chernivtsi Art Museum, I give "Salvation" a symbolic opportunity to be in the museum among other works of the artist, but even with this presence, the painting itself remains invisible. It is not known exactly where "Salvation" is now, so the musical composition becomes the only possible connection between the picture and the viewer in this space.

0x93_DEC_21

Kyrylo S

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