"room of words" / online audio installation

Maria Matiashova (UA)

The work is available HERE.

eng-room-of-words-by-yaroslava-kovalchuk-1.jpeg
  • music:Oleksii Podat
  • voices:Karina Piliugina, Verona
  • recording, mixing:Dmytro Oleksiuk
  • graphic design:Yaroslava Kovalchuk
  • special thanks:Dima Tolkachov, Ihor Babaiev, Nika Popova, Nastia Kolodka, Vladyslava Kozlenko

“room of words” is audio installation about the beauty of the Ukrainian language and its power, which becomes a pillar of support in difficult times. like exchanging passwords at checkpoints, like in the children’s ball game of associations, two people tell each other Ukrainian words — melodic, poetic, beloved and gentle to the ear. some of these words have been forgotten, some were repressed in soviet times, some have been displaced from usage in favor of those phonetically closer to foreign — often russian — synonyms. the installation is a play without a plot. the sequence of words is not random. the war speaks through it. the words you hear associatively recreate the whirlwind of events and states of 2022. by creating a chasm between the melodic sound of Ukrainian words and the painful reality of their meanings. why do these beautiful words have such horrible meanings now?