Pavilion of Poland

Pavilion of Poland
60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

REPEAT AFTER ME II
by Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga)
Curated by Marta Czyż

Commissioner: Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland Interim Director of the Zachęta — National Gallery of Art: Justyna Szylman
Polish Pavilion office: Michał Kubiak (deputy commissioner), Anna Kowalska

April 20 – November 24, 2024
Pre-opening Days: April 17–18–19, 2024
Opening: April 18, 11am

Repeat after Me II is a collective portrait of witnesses to the ongoing war in Ukraine, presented in the form of an audiovisual video installation. The protagonists of the film at the Polish Pavilion are civilians with refugee experience, speaking about the war through the sounds of weapons they recall, which they invite the audience to repeat. The Open Group art collective and curator Marta Czyż have thus created a military karaoke of the future, joining the public and war witnesses in dialogue. Repeat after Me II is an installation by the Ukrainian Open Group collective, made up of two films. These videos were created in 2022 and 2024. All the people they feature are refugees, speaking of their war experiences through the sounds of weapons they recall, then encouraging the audience to follow their lead. The artists use the karaoke format. Yet here the accompaniment is not hit songs, but shots, missiles, howling and explosions, and the lyrics are descriptions of deadly weapons. This is the soundtrack of a war. The juxtaposition of these works from 2022 and 2024 shows the drastic continuity of memory, as well as the changes in war technology.