Quasi-declarative opera
On the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute, makes its stage available to artists who, sharing the refugee fate of hundreds of thousands of their compatriots, continue to co-create Ukrainian culture.
From February 24, 2022, Ukrainian culture began to be present in the social space of Western European countries. However, in the conditions of the criminal war unleashed by Russia, trying to understand Ukrainian culture solely through "traditional art" or "art of trauma" is not enough.
Composer and director Andrii Merkhel, together with the creators invited to the project, attempt to create a zone outside of time, an interterritorial zone, separating the artistic reality from before the apocalypse and preparing the place for the creation of a new, post-war theater. This is a "buffer stage" - not yet ready, silent. Through practical work on words, images and music, artists creating quasi-opera try to recognize the phenomenon of an empty stage and examine the crisis of culture in the context of ubiquitous evidence of the catastrophe.
Does art have the power, right and chance to find its place in the reality of the end of the world, the crisis of humanity, the war annihilation of the normal world? Is it possible to predict the shape of the culture that will emerge after the apocalypse? The creators of the show try to find the answer in the very essence of stage activity, i.e. in the process of communication between actors, musicians and viewers. The premiere of the show took place on December 20, 2023 at the New Theater in Poznań.
The performance was created as part of the third edition of the Artistic Residencies of the Theater Institute for creators from Belarus and Ukraine.Event partners: National Institute of Music and Dance, Teatr Nowy im. Tadeusz Łomnicki in Poznań.