Where are you from?
from the project «Х Letters»
»Where are you from?« (from the project «Х Letters»)
video , 7:00, 2023
Concept, modelling by Nadya Sayapina
Music, concept, video and postproduction by Eugene Buldyk
Vocals by Neue Vocalsolisten ensemble
Based on the text by Vasilisa Palianina
It is read by Belarusian migrants in five languages and by vocalists from the ensemble Neue
Vocalsolisten in Belarusian. The video was filmed by five Belarusians in Minsk and by five Belarusian
migrants in Warsaw, London, Berlin, Vilnius and Tbilisi.
«Х Letters» 2022–2023
NADYA SAYAPINA–concept, performing, videography
EUGENE BULDYK–music, concept, videography
NEUE VOCALSOLISTEN STUTTGART–vocals
What do we write in our posts, say in stories, discuss in comments, tell in interviews?
What do we save in the archives of unviewed folders,what do we shoot on non-existent memory
films?
What are our letters home about?
Our reflections, statements, notes, memoirs, interviews, discussions and debates of posts, stories
and comments are drowning in the endless depths of social media feeds, they become 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 causes an urgent need to press
the »save« button, to archive, to convert it to the basis of a chronicle of the time.
»X Letters« is a video–diary, which correlates and combines in one »book« of different contexts
and human stories reflecting the theme of exile, migration and refugee, loss of home, choice,
adaptation and existential crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and political repressions in Belarus.
This is a commemoration of a common emotional experience through the personal, collected
from social network materials, interviews and multimedia archives. The project contains photos,
video, audio and texts of more than 50 people.
The project has initially been started within the framework of ECHOES–Voices of Belarus IV
program of Musik der Jahrhunderte Stuttgart e. V. in 2022. It was finalized at PerspAKTIV art
residence implemented by RAZAM, Ambasada Kultury and IN SITU with the financial support of
the German Federal Foreign Office in 2023.