About the project
“The lost sound of the forgotten place” by Maryna Shchehelska
Maryna Shchehelska sang a carol that was recorded in the village of Yehorivka, Volnovakha district, Donetsk region in 2007. Caroling is a ritual that involves a mutual exchange of joy. These are sincere wishes for all the best, repeated from year to year, as if testifying to the continuation of life.
A hall full of people, a wooden floor, and four sturdy columns. The audience communicates with each other very carefully, as if afraid to disturb the peace of this place. In the semi-darkness stands a performer dressed in white. Quietly and gently, she hums the melody of the carol “Oy, dyvnoye novorozhdene,” which gradually acquires words and a two-voice performance by the performer. Later, a projection of the village of Yehorivka appears on the floor, with white lines marking the roads of this area. Singing continuously, Maryna Shchehelska moves along these lines, imitating the traditional Ukrainian walk of carolers from house to house during Christmas. However, all of this is imbued with complete antonymy: a winter carol, designed for a whole choir, is performed by only one performer in the summer, recording and reproducing her own voice into a microphone on stage.
Anastasiia Ivanes,
theater critic
Yehorivka has been occupied since 2022. The cyclical nature of this song has been interrupted. It does not sound where it was created, and it is unknown whether those who knew it are still alive. It exists somewhere between memory and oblivion – recorded but not fulfilling its direct function. Now it is a lost memory that has no point of return.
This performance is a statement of the transformation of the inner logic of life: a song that used to tell about joy in winter will tell about grief in summer. It is an attempt to gather the fragments of a once whole life in one place to explore their changes and interactions.
About the author
Maryna Shchehelska is a multidisciplinary artist born in 2003 in Kyiv. In 2023, she graduated from the Ecole supérieure d’art Dunkerque – Tourcoing in Tourcoing, France, and in 2024, from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture. In her practice, she explores the transformations of the inner logic of life as a result of war, the concept of norm, and its variability. She works with the themes of collective and individual memory and oblivion, where oblivion and memory are interpreted not as opposite concepts, but as parts of one whole. In her research, she turns to traditional art. She works with graphics, performance, photography, ceramics, and painting.
Presentations
- The first work-in-progress showing took place on August 28, 2024, at the Mala Opera in Kyiv.
Video teaser
Credits
Production proto produkciia
Lead producer Olga Diatel
Line Producer Iryna Onishchuk
Associate Producer Yuliia Parysh
Assistant Olga Bondarenko, Hanna Kachkovska
Video mapping Lisa Orliuk
Sound adviser Slava Soboliev
Communication Oleksii Havrlyliuk
Media coordination Kateryna Lukiashko
Copywriting Danylo Zenkin
Design of posters Yaroslava Kovalchuk
Photo Anastasia Telikova
Video documentation Daria Sokolova, Andrii Borodavchuk, Yaroslav Pushkarchuk
Financial management Roman Dyma, Kateryna Vandych
Supported by
The work was implemented by proto produkciia foundation and co-funded by ZMINA: Rebuilding program, created with the support of the European Union as part of a special call for proposals to support Ukrainian IDPs and the Ukrainian cultural and creative sectors, with the support of the IZOLYATSIA Foundation, Trans Europe Halles and Malý Berlín.