Synonym for "wait"

Realized: 6.05.2015 – 31.07.2015

live streaming video, foto 6, and performance

Size: 210 x 210 cm

Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Stanislav Turina, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga)

A video wall composed of nine screens is transmitting live streams from nine front doors of the family homes of recently drafted Ukrainian soldiers, all living in different parts of the country. To the backsides of the screens framed photographs of the families’ dinner tables are hung, a reference to the life behind these doors. During the period of the exhibition, one member of Open Group sits in front of the live stream, at a similar, typically Ukrainian table, waiting for the soldiers to return home and refusing to eat during this period.

The work moves between presence, absence and anticipation. The performative act requires a test of endurance, which is a quality shared by the families, the soldiers and Ukrainian society as a whole. It expresses hope for the soldiers’ return and an end to this conflict. Through its simple and honest form, this work deals with people and their fears. It reveals the helplessness of people drawn into a violent conflict while suggesting the hopes that allow them to find new ways of making life go on.

Created with the support of PinchukArtCenter, Kiev, Ukraine. «Hope!» Ukraine National Pavilion at the 56 th International Art Exhibition in Venice - La Biennale di Venezia (2015). Photographs provided by the PinchukArtCentre © 2015. Photographed by Sergey Illin