Bird in Flight

Contextual installation. Monuments, poems, poet’s voices, light and sound. Spectral poetry [Kyiv] brings back to life through poetry the monuments in the public space of Kyiv that have been protected from war. These monuments are covered with sandbags, wooden panels and scaffolding to avoid being damaged by russian aggression. These structures are there to keep the monuments and the cultural symbols they represent safe. But they also hide them from public view inside what appears to be large-scale coffins. This project revives these monuments temporarily from their hidden condition using light, sound and the voices of Ukrainian poets. The cultural and symbolic meaning of these monuments is updated through the spectral presence of contemporary poets signified by the sound of their voices synchronised with a pulsating light. This project ritualizes these hidden monuments, bringing them back to their cultural and symbolic function for a few nights. To the question of whether culture is possible in times of war, Ukrainian writer and poet Serhiy Zhadan responded that culture is not only possible but more necessary than ever... culture is what makes us human. When culture is absent and leaves a void, fear takes its place. The voices of poets who are experiencing and writing about the war since its beginning in 2014 are meaningful to understanding the present and projecting the future. Poets are especially sensitive to how we collectively create meaning. Ilya Kaminsky, quoting Zbigniew Herbert in Words of War, writes: a poet is like a barometer for the psyche of a nation. In their hands, language becomes a tool of cultural and vital resistance. Project is conceived by Pablo Valbuena with the collaboration of Ostap Slyvynsky and the voices and poems of: Olena Huseinova Artur Dron Pavlo Korobchuk Halyna Kruk Sofia Lenartovych Yuliana Lesniak, Kateryna Mikhalitsyna Maryna Ponomarenko Ostap Slyvynsky Iryna Tsilyk Lyuba Yakimchuk This project is generously supported by WhiteBIT. Commissioned by don’t Take Fake team as a continuation of the Module of Temporality project