"To My Fellow-Countrymen, In Ukraine and Not In Ukraine, Living, Dead and as Yet Unborn My Friendly Epistle"
T. G. Shevchenko
The performance is the result of a one-week residency project organized by the Mapping Festival at the KZERN, reuniting the ukrainian visual artist and the Genevan musician.This piece is an artist's contemplation of the cycle of life and death that affects all living things. The urban environment is the place where thousands of individuals are born, form the next generation, and pass away. And as a result of the war in Ukraine, death became so tangible, existential, and evident to feel.The composition of artwork consists of visual minimalist and abstract forms which develop in time very slowly, giving a viewer time to get into the state of meditation and reflect on their thoughts. In abstract forms, the artwork depicts the beginning of life, the urban landscape, its stages of development, and its ultimate collapse with souls released for a new rebirth.The soundscape accompanies the visuals and emphasizes the emotional changes of the composition. From meditation to anxiety and consternation, to humility and prayer.The artist invites the audience to meditate and pray for the people whose lives were taken by barbaric power. This is a prayer for every life that is threatened or lost as a result of war.For every life that was born in a bomb shelter or died beneath the rubble.Media:Multimedia audio-visual live performance.Music, sound art:Joëlle Kehrli (jo~oj)Visuals, graffity:Svitlana Zhytnia (Zhi Zhi)Mapping Festival 2022Swiss, Geneva