REPEAT AFTER ME, 2022
1-1__22Repeat_after_me22_2022_still_from_video__Open_Group_.jpg | Credits: "Repeat after me" 2022, still from video © Open Group
1-3_22Repeat_after_me22_2022_still_from_video__Open_Group_.jpg | Credits: "Repeat after me" 2022, still from video © Open Group
1-4_22Repeat_after_me22_2022_still_from_video__Open_Group_.jpg | Credits: "Repeat after me" 2022, still from video © Open Group
1-6_22Repeat_after_me22_2022_still_from_video__Open_Group_.jpg | Credits: "Repeat after me" 2022, still from video © Open Group
1-5_22Repeat_after_me22_2022_still_from_video__Open_Group_.jpg | Credits: "Repeat after me" 2022, still from video © Open Group
2-1_Repeat_after_me22_2022_Labirynt_gallery_Lublin_Poland_Photo_by_Bartosz_Górka_courtesy_the_artists.jpg | Credits: Repeat after me, 2022, Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach and Anton Varga), Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland, Photo by Bartosz Górka, courtesy the artists
2-2_Repeat_after_me22_2022_Labirynt_gallery_Lublin_Poland_photo_by_Emilia_Lipa_courtesy_the_artists..JPG | Credits: Repeat after me, 2022, Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach and Anton Varga) Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland, photo by Emilia Lipa, courtesy the artists.
2-3_Repeat_after_me22_2022_Labirynt_gallery_Lublin_Poland_photo_by_Emilia_Lipa_courtesy_the_artists..JPG | Credits: Repeat after me, 2022, Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach and Anton Varga) Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland, photo by Emilia Lipa, courtesy the artists.
2-4_Repeat_after_me22_2022_Labirynt_gallery_Lublin_Poland_photo_by_Emilia_Lipa_courtesy_the_artists..JPG | Credits: Repeat after me, 2022, Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach and Anton Varga) Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland, photo by Emilia Lipa, courtesy the artists.
A few weeks before Russia’s full-scale invasion, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine began distributing a multi-page handbook on how to behave in the area where military actions are happening. The order and type of action severely depend on whether the attack is assault rifle fire, artillery shelling, multiple rocket launcher shelling, or even aerial bombardment. Very often, the only way to distinguish the type of fire is to determine different weapon types by sound.
In the work REPEAT AFTER ME we see refugees from the East of Ukraine who, fleeing the threat of war, found shelter in a temporary camp in Lviv. They share their experience of the sounds of war. Reproducing various types of weapons, they conduct a kind of karaoke instruction, which, while transmitting simple sound sequences, is still unable to convey the experience that exists nearby, the experience that has become the price for this knowledge. This skill speaks about the new reality in which Ukrainians currently live.
"From the moment we hear the first air raid siren, our ‘internal alarm’ is on alert. It keeps us in constant tension and makes us listen to every sound, every rustle. Sometimes suspicion creeps in even in silence."
A few weeks before Russia’s full-scale invasion, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine began distributing a multi-page handbook on how to behave in the area where military actions are happening. The order and type of action severely depend on whether the attack is assault rifle fire, artillery shelling, multiple rocket launcher shelling, or even aerial bombardment. Very often, the only way to distinguish the type of fire is to determine different weapon types by sound.
In the work REPEAT AFTER ME we see refugees from the East of Ukraine who, fleeing the threat of war, found shelter in a temporary camp in Lviv. They share their experience of the sounds of war. Reproducing various types of weapons, they conduct a kind of karaoke instruction, which, while transmitting simple sound sequences, is still unable to convey the experience that exists nearby, the experience that has become the price for this knowledge. This skill speaks about the new reality in which Ukrainians currently live.
"From the moment we hear the first air raid siren, our ‘internal alarm’ is on alert. It keeps us in constant tension and makes us listen to every sound, every rustle. Sometimes suspicion creeps in even in silence."
REPEAT AFTER ME, 2022, (video installation, karaoke, video 17’7’')
Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, and Anton Varga)
Cast: Alla, Antonina, Boris, Ekaterina, Iryna, Olena, Svitlana, Yuriy
Director of photography: Roman Bordun
Editors: Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga
Sound design: Roman Bordun
Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, and Anton Varga) was founded in August 2012 in Lviv by six Ukrainian artists. The structure of Open Group is built around the study of the idea of collective work while involving people from different fields for the period of time to work on projects together. The group’s work is based on exploring interactions between people and contextual spaces, creating the so-called “open situations”. In 2019, the group was the curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. In 2024, the Open Group will represent Poland at the 60th Venice Biennale with the project REPEAT AFTER ME II.
Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, and Anton Varga) was founded in August 2012 in Lviv by six Ukrainian artists. The structure of Open Group is built around the study of the idea of collective work while involving people from different fields for the period of time to work on projects together. The group’s work is based on exploring interactions between people and contextual spaces, creating the so-called “open situations”. In 2019, the group was the curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. In 2024, the Open Group will represent Poland at the 60th Venice Biennale with the project REPEAT AFTER ME II.
The role and impact of experiencing technology, and the forms that knowledge of it can take, undergo a twist in the video installation Repeat After Me, created by the Ukrainian collective Open Group. With full-scale invasion, Ukrainians have become military experts with the ability to distinguish and determine different weapon types—assault rifle fire, artillery shelling, multiple rocket launcher shelling, drone attacks, aerial bombardment—by sound. This new-found knowledge is a reality for Ukrainians and possessing it increases the chances of survival. The video features civilians displaced from various regions of Ukraine, who talk about their personal war experiences, but in a peculiar way. The familiar and seemingly playful format of a karaoke offers to share ‘knowledge‘ in and through sound. Repeat after me is an artwork. However, instead of songs and tunes, it presents/offers individual memories and experiences of everyday war violence and its “vehicles”—the sounds of gunfire, missiles, howls, and explosions of deadly firearms and drones. It offers a human-voiced soundtrack of the war in Ukraine.
The role and impact of experiencing technology, and the forms that knowledge of it can take, undergo a twist in the video installation Repeat After Me, created by the Ukrainian collective Open Group. With full-scale invasion, Ukrainians have become military experts with the ability to distinguish and determine different weapon types—assault rifle fire, artillery shelling, multiple rocket launcher shelling, drone attacks, aerial bombardment—by sound. This new-found knowledge is a reality for Ukrainians and possessing it increases the chances of survival. The video features civilians displaced from various regions of Ukraine, who talk about their personal war experiences, but in a peculiar way. The familiar and seemingly playful format of a karaoke offers to share ‘knowledge‘ in and through sound. Repeat after me is an artwork. However, instead of songs and tunes, it presents/offers individual memories and experiences of everyday war violence and its “vehicles”—the sounds of gunfire, missiles, howls, and explosions of deadly firearms and drones. It offers a human-voiced soundtrack of the war in Ukraine.