The film will be screened online by each collaborating institution: Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. Curated by Adam Szymczyk.

The film Mariupolonaise (2022; Dur. 12min) by Scottish artist Ross Birrell was made in response to the Russian airstrike on the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre in Mariupol (Ukraine), today exactly six months ago. It is dedicated to the 600 victims: innocent civilians who were sheltering in the theatre’s basement, including several children. The moving-image and sound work is based upon recordings of the Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova’s recitals at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw in 2010. The work seeks to explore how the intensity of music and the moving-image might resonate with conditions endured in a time of war, in the wake of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Watch the video here. 

ABOUT ANNA FEDOROVA

Anna Fedorova is a renowned pianist who was born in Kyiv and now lives in Amsterdam. She has recently performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra at Teatr Wielki-Polish National Opera, Warsaw, BBC Proms Albert Hall, London, the 75th Edinburgh International Festival, and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

ABOUT ROSS BIRRELL

Ross Birrell is Professor and Senior Researcher at The Glasgow School of Art. He has exhibited internationally including at Gwangju Biennale, Kunsthalle Basel, and documenta 14. He is represented by Ellen de Bruijne, Projects, Amsterdam.

Curated by Adam Szymczyk