Titled Repeat After Me II, the exhibition features an audiovisual installation by the Ukrainian art collective Open Group portraying civilian survivors of war.
It consists of two video works, created in 2022 and 2024, in which Ukrainian refugees recall the sounds of warfare—gunfire, explosions, sirens—and invite viewers to repeat them.
The unsettling effect is boosted by the format: instead of a traditional musical accompaniment, the soundscape mimics the auditory chaos of war, with descriptions of deadly weapons serving as the “lyrics.”
The 2022 video was filmed in Lviv, western Ukraine, in a camp for internally displaced persons. It captures refugees recounting the horrors they had recently escaped.
The 2024 video was produced outside Ukraine, in locations including Poland's Wrocław, Vienna, Berlin, Vilnius, Tullamore in Ireland, and New York.
While these places offered physical safety—refugee camps, hotels and dormitories—the participants' trauma remained.
Even far from air raid sirens and artillery fire, the echoes of war still haunt them. The sounds of combat symbolically expand the war’s reach, emphasizing its global implications.
The installation also references the reality of preparedness for war.
Shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy distributed brochures explaining how to recognize different types of attacks — automatic rifles, artillery fire, rocket launchers, air raids — knowledge that has since become crucial for survival.
The ability to distinguish these sounds forms part of the collective memory of Ukrainians.
One of the latest additions to the 2024 video is the sound of Iranian-made Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.
Since autumn 2022, Russia has used thousands of these drones extensively to attack civilian and energy infrastructure.
Many Ukrainians will never forget the distinctive hum of the Shahed’s engine in the night sky, followed by the chilling silence just before impact.
By juxtaposing the two videos, the exhibition highlights advancements in military technology while stressing the persistent trauma of war, expanding its symbolic reach beyond national borders.
The project reflects the broader refugee crisis, placing personal experiences within the wider geopolitical reality.
In a world where displacement is increasingly widespread, Repeat After Me II speaks not only of Ukrainian refugees but of all displaced people globally.
The artists behind Open Group—Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach and Anton Varga—seek to present war as a collective experience that transcends age, nationality or social status.
Open Group members with exhibition curator Marta Czyż (second from right). Photo by Jacopo Salvi, courtesy of Warsaw's Zachęta gallery
Curated by Marta Czyż, Repeat After Me II was originally shown in the Polish Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, where it drew nearly 400,000 visitors and gained international recognition.
"Repeat After Me II" on display at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Photo by Jacopo Salvi, courtesy of Warsaw's Zachęta gallery
The exhibition will be on display at Warsaw's Zachęta gallery until April 4.
The "Repeat After Me II" exhibition will be on display at Warsaw's Zachęta gallery until April 4. Image courtesy of Warsaw's Zachęta National Gallery of Art
Source: zacheta.art.pl