Who’d have thought that snow falls
The evening focuses on the voice as a cross-generational testimony of human experience and the transformative power of singing together.
Three large screens hang like windows in the room and open up visual and sonic perspectives on the landscapes and singers of the Ukrainian region of Luhansk. Berlin and Ukrainian singers under the direction of Paulina Miu Kühling and Vlada Rusina enter into a sonic dialog with these images. Their singing aims to bridge the physical distance and political border to the villages occupied by Russia since March 2022.
Martyna Poznańska’s multi-channel sound composition with field recordings from Luhansk and Matthias Schönijahn’s video work condense into a multi-dimensional sound and image space. In this immersive ambience, the artists invite the audience to be touched by voices full of life and marked by experience – voices that bear witness to resistance, loss and unbroken human vitality.
Background
In her empirical field study “Traditional Ukrainian songs as performed by folk choirs of ‚Sloboda‘ Ukraine” Влада Русіна (Vlada Rusina) examines the influence of Soviet cultural policy on traditional singing practices in the Ukrainian Luhansk Oblast.
In the eighth year of the war, shortly before the impending Russian invasion, a German-Polish-Ukrainian team traveled to this region in 2021 and met with local singing collectives. The encounters focused on key research questions: How do the living environment and experiences of crisis shape the voices of the singers? And how are these vocal imprints passed on across generations and borders?
Revision 2024
After Russia’s invasion of the entire Ukrainian territory, the project was fundamentally revised and a fourth part was added. Since then, refugees from Ukraine have been singing together with the singers of the specially founded project choir. The refugees brought their own songs and added to the musical repertoire. In addition, current voices from the now occupied territories were integrated into the project.
Team
With singers from the Luhansk villages Білолуцьк Людмила Шуляк, Петро Чепелуха, Валентина Деркач, Людмила Горшкова, Оксана Гутнєва, Людмила Іларіонова, Тетяна Кандиба,Юрій Кузнєцов, Юрій Максименко, Анна Невідома, Наталія Шепілова, Олег Волков, Тетяна Зайцева // Осинове Ольга Бушла, Любов Молочкова, Марія Саградова, Зінаїда Сковородка, Катерина Ткаченко // Городище Тетяна Грабчук, Любов Корнієнко, Раїса Шугайло, Світлана Коновалова
With Berlin based and Ukrainian singers: Agnieszka Bułacik, Ewa Brokos, Mina Djordjević, Katharina Fischer, Agnieszka Kucharska, Julia Legezynska, Joana Katarzyna Pietras, Ola Zielińska, Влада Русіна (Vlada Rusina), Тереза Яковина (Tereza Yakovyna), Ігор Дмитрієв (Igor Dimetrijew)
Artistic direction, camera, video editing, stage design and direction Matthias Schönijahn // choir direction, composition choir Paulina Miu Kühling // composition, sound design Martyna Poznańska // dramaturgy, choreographic collaboration Rose Beermann, Constantin von Thun// field and choirrecordings – Johannes van Bebber // dramaturgy video Ljupcho Temelkovski // light design Maika Knoblich, Constantin von Thun // outfits Ewa Brokos // video projection, sound, technical set-up Johannes Plank, Anna Petzer // scientific consulting Влада Русіна (Vlada Rusina) // production management Birgit Voigt // production management Ukraine Валера Пріорізна (Valera Prioriznha) // artistic assistance, translation Тереза Яковина (Tereza Yakovyna)
