A Monument To Irpin River

A Monument to Irpin River is an audiovisual performance based on field recordings and aerial photos of Irpin river located in the Kyiv region. The piece attempts to reflect on the commemoration practices of the ongoing war, as well as on the, previously dominating in the public space of Ukraine, Soviet commemorative practices and the narratives that they have spread and normalized, using commemoration as an ideological tool.

When imagining the future in which Ukraine wins the war, a question appears — how will we commemorate this war? In this piece I attempt to drift away from the human-centered and victory-manifesting monuments, and turn the viewer’s gaze to the landscape within which we live, the river, acknowledging the help that it provided us with, and the damage that it had been through.

In 1941, the first defense line of Kyiv passed along the Irpin River. In 2022, history repeated itself: the detonation of part of the dam on the Irpin River and the flooding of its floodplain became a decisive moment in the battle for Kyiv. The river was used as a tool of resistance, cutting off the enemy's possible way to the capital. Knowing that, I keep thinking: what if there was no river at all? What if the river was dried up at that time? What would be the turn of events in that case?  An audio piece created using field recordings of Irpin river and played from a speaker on a pedestal is an attempt to reflect on this topic.