About the project
“Sirens” by Iryna Nirsha
Iryna Nirsha presents Sirens, a performative installation that explores the new challenges facing the collective South of Ukraine and unites the southern regions in the face of Russian aggression. The work focuses on the deconstruction of the Russian myth about the Ukrainian South and tries to create a modern Ukrainian-centric myth, engaging visitors through immersive practices, as well as performances, opera, and video art.
The sound of air raid alerts has dominated the space since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sometimes some sound trigger causes these howling sirens in my mind and I freeze. Sometimes I go to the shelter because I’m very anxious, sometimes I don’t pay attention and continue to sleep at night or go about my business during the day, noticing that I’m adapting to these sounds, it’s already part of my daily life. When I don’t hear sirens for a long time, it causes me even more anxiety, because it seems that the enemy is preparing a massive attack and accumulating resources. Together with the visitors of the performance, we will descend into the underground of the surviving Odesa Fine Arts Museum to meet in silence and safety with the myth that Russia has long constructed about the sea gate of Ukraine – the Southern region, we will try to look into the darkness and find a common light in it, we will construct a collective myth of the present – the time of war and the heroism of warriors, perhaps the most important time when the history of the country is being created and we have a chance to defeat the enemy who has been trying to destroy us as a nation for centuries.
Iryna Nirsha
About the author
About the author
Iryna Nirsha is a professional director and actress. In 2013, she obtained a master’s degree in acting from the Karpenko-Karyi University, then moved to Poland, where she studied for a year at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw. In parallel with her studies, she worked as an actress in the independent theater Nettheatre at the Center for Culture in Lublin. In 2014, she staged her first play, “Medea’s Room”. She has presented her projects at international festivals in Germany, Austria, France, Denmark, and Poland. As a director, she experiments and usually combines different disciplines and directions: physical theater, performance, music, circus, installation, video art. She is also involved in cinema. In 2022, the film “Butterfly Vision” (directed by Maksym Nakonechnyi), on which Ira worked with the cast, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the “Un Certain Regard” program. In 2024, the film “Honeymoon” directed by Zhanna Ozirna, where Ira played the main role, premiered in the official program of the Venice Film Festival.
Video teaser
Presentations
- The performative installation was presented to the audience in the grotto of the Odessa Art Museum on December 24, 2023.
Credits
Production proto produkciia
Lead producer Olga Diatel
Executive producer Volodymyr Burkovets
Associate Producers Yuliia Parysh, Alona Odarenko, Iryna Onishchuk
Assistant Nata Zelenska
Communication Olga Diatel, Yuliia Parysh
Media coordination Kateryna Lukiashko
Copywriting Stanislav Vrublevskyi
Design of posters Yaroslava Kovalchuk
Financial management Volodymyr Burkovets, Anna Kyryliuk
Supported by
The work was implemented by proto produkciia foundation within the framework of the program Cultural Bridges: support of cultural figures from Southern regions of Ukraine, implemented by Insha Osvita with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI).