REPEAT AFTER ME, 2022
one-channel video installation, karaoke, video,17'7'', edition 5+2AP (left 3)
Open Group – Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach and Anton Varga
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."
director: OPEN GROUP — Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, 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
sound: Piotr Blajerski
colour correction: Artem Stretovych
© Open Group: Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga, 2022
The video Repeat after Me 2022 was created with the involvement of refugees in Lviv, Ukraine.
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THE WORK "REPEAT AFTER ME" (2022) WAS PRESENTED AT:
2025 Familiar Strangers, Bozar, Brussel, Belgium.
2025 DIGITHALIA — Festival for virtual theatre forms Graz, Austria.
2024 Wild Grass: Our Lives, 8th Yokohama Triennale, Japan.
2024 Forever and a Day, Melkweg Expo, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2023 Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Search, Our Us, Jam Factory Art Center, Lviv, Ukraine.
2023 Talking about Myself? Talking about You, Stadtkino, Vienna, Austria.
2023 A short story of tension, resistance and love, Art Station Dubulti, Jūrmala, Latvia.
2023 Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories: Ukrainian Art 1912–2023, Museum De Fundatie in Zwolle.
2023 Talking about Myself? Talking about You, DAAD gallery, Berlin,Germany.
2023 Open Group / Repeat After Me, Kulturdrogerie, Wien, Austria.
2023 Talking about Myself? Talking about You, Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2023 When the Inconceivable Takes Form, Cite International des arts, Paris, France.
2023 Unexpected Care, Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia, Bulgaria.
2023 Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023, Albertinum, Dresden, Germany.
2023 SONYA Art for Ukrainian AID, Los Angeles, USA.
2023 Open Group: We Were Somewhere Among You, HB Station, Guangzhou, China.
2022 Open Group - Repeat After Me, Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland.
2022 Repeat After Me by Open Group, Theater of Hopes and Expectations, Düsseldorf, Germany.
2022 Stolen Sun, Miguel Abreu gallery, New York, USA.
OPEN GROUP - REPEAT AFTER ME, Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland