Seeing is not enough. The unique project Repeat After Me reproduces the sound perceptions of war.

Yuriy Biley (Wrocław/Berlin), Pavlo Kovach (Lviv), and Anton Varga (New York) are the current permanent members of the Open Group collective, founded in 2012. Their greatest public attention so far has come precisely through Repeat After Me, developed since 2022, when the current phase of the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Since then, its various iterations have been presented at several prestigious exhibitions. The project will also be shown as part of One World.

The premise is that the “language of experience” and the “language of trauma” cannot be fully expressed through traditional artistic methods, but rather through mechanical repetition. At the outset are the efforts of respondents who have lived through horrific events to reproduce, with their own voice, the sounds that now haunt them. The aim is not to revive trauma, but to demonstrate an immediate reality. Repeat After Me is not a recollection but a report on the acoustic state of the world. At first glance, the attempt to ‘sound out’ one’s lived experience may seem almost humorous, yet its implications are far deeper and more intimate.

As the title suggests, visitors may be invited to replicate this re-enactment themselves. The consciously banal and entertaining format of karaoke is inverted here. Instead of songs we know, we learn to articulate sounds we should not have to know. This act of repetition is at once unsettling and ethically charged. We are confronted with a choice—to repeat, or to remain silent. In both cases, we become active participants in the situation, and our choice carries consequences.

The project was created in two stages, in 2022 and 2024. The first phase captures the immediacy of war’s chaos; the second reflects its aftershocks and the emergence of a new normal. Although its origins lie in the Ukrainian experience, the creators emphasize the universality of war—gunfire, after all, sounds the same everywhere. They also strive to avoid nationalist pathos. The language of war is, unfortunately, global.

Repeat After Me, 2022 does not seek sympathy; it calls for attention. It demands a conscious effort to listen and the ability to think rationally about the information received. It is not about adopting someone else’s experience, but about making it unmistakably clear that their experience must not be forgotten.

Over its nearly fifteen years of activity, Open Group has received numerous awards, including the PinchukArtCentre Prize (special prize in 2013, main prize in 2015). Their works have been presented at the 56th (within the Future Generation Art Prize @ Venice) and 58th Venice Biennale within the Ukrainian Pavilion. In 2024, Open Group represented Poland at the Biennale with Repeat After Me II. Now the exhibition will also be shown in Prague during One World.

The opening at Fotograf Zone will take place on 24 February at 18:00.