Pray

from the project «Х Letters»

00:00:00 00:00:00

Video , 5:00, 2022

concept, modelling by Nadya Sayapina

music, video and post-production by Eugene Buldyk

vocals by Neue Vocalsolisten ensemble

based on the text by Stanislav Turina

 

»Oh Lord, you allowed me to return home today

Outside the doors there is a garden

«Lights out, Christin

Guardian angels watch over me»

You are here, oh Lord

Sounds of explosions open the heart

Lord, you gave us so much strength to spare that we use to bicker and argue, thank you

Lord, teach us now to contend well

Teach good-hearted folk to guard each other from a harsh word

Grant mastery of the word to those who need it so much in this hour

Lord, safeguard us in the quiet of the night

Archangels, unsheath your swords and give last chance for our enemy to stop

May people who are in danger overcome it atop a crocodile and with an utmost open hand repel the lion and the hippo

With fire and sword guard us, oh Lord!

Abandon us not in this darkest hour

All I have I lay at your feet oh Christ

And as a Sirin, I cry out towards the heavens«

(Translated from Ukrainian by Mikita Piaskou)

 

«Х Letters»

2022- up to present

 

Our reflections, statements, notes, memoirs, interviews, discussions and debates of posts, stories and comments are drowned in the endless depths of social media feeds, censored and self-censored. Textualised self-expression and reflection of context in the public space of networks loses its value and relevance in the mass stream. This creates an urgent need to press the »save« button, to archive, to transform it into the basis of a chronicle of time.

»X Letters« is a video-diary that correlates and combines into one »book« different contexts and human stories reflecting the theme of exile, migration and refugees, loss of home, choice, adaptation and existential crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and political repressions in Belarus. It is a memorial of personal experiences and reflections, archived from social media posts and comments and interview fragments collected by the artist as part of her research.

The project by the artist Nadya Sayapina and the musician Eugene Buldyk in collaboration with the ensemble Neue Vocalsolisten was launched in 2022 as part of the ECHOESVoices from Belarus IV programme of Musik der Jahrhunderte Stuttgart e.V..