February 9 – March 31, 2020
During this project, the Ukrainian audience will see the premiere of the movie “Voices of Love” (2019), in which the author shows the historic re-enactment of the Marilyn Monroe concert in North Korea (1954) to elevate the morale of the US military. The modern remake of the star tour has been moved to military bases in eastern Ukraine: in Popasna and near Debaltseve, the role of Marilyn is played by opera singer Maria Maksakova and El Kravchuk. The framing of the project will create a photo story of the design of the absurd travesty show.
“Shooting process, cooperation with the military forces, months of work and reflection – I did not imagine how the soldiers would react to participate in the theatrical event, however, it turned out that such tours were only a few kilometers from the front”. Arsen Savadov
“Last spring was the first time we heard about the idea and reviewed the teasers from the filming of the Voice of Love project. What we’ve seen was truly captivating! In Arsen Savadov's large-scale work we have a well-designed meeting of the Ukrainian army with Marilyn Monroe. It must be understood that despite considerable articulation, the tragic meaning of the phenomenon displaces the war on the backyard of individual consciousness because people do not want to be constantly aware of the horrors, it is psychologically difficult. But in the feeling of celebration and joy, the viewer again draws closer to our soldiers, decreases the distance between military and peaceful life and the desire to act to bring our men home…” Natalia Shpytkovska, Director of the M17 Contemporary Art Center
“The key message in Savadov’s ‘Voices of Love’ is love for one's neighbour, which is devalued in the dramatic modern world, but does not cease to be a cement of human relationships. The artist calls part of his projects ‘social performances’, in which he involves real characters instead of extras in order to make the body of the society with which he works and his mood more tangible”. Victoria Burlaka, curator of the exhibition
The exhibition also includes
selected photos from famous projects such as “Donbass-Chocolate”, “Collective
Red”, “Book of the Dead”, “Fashion at the Cemetery”, “Commedia dell Arte in
Crimea”, “Cocto”, “Underground 2000”, “Angels”. A separate project will be presented individually – 11 staged photos from the “Diary of the Drowner”
series, which continues the so-called romantic line in Savadov's work. The project awaits the viewer:
installations of anti-tank urchins from French fries, large-scale work on the
cycle “Books of the Dead”, disco-helmet and other artefacts from the shooting
of Arsen Savadov's projects.
The exhibition “Voices of Love” will be open to
visitors from February 9 to March 31,
2020 (102-104, Antonovycha St., Kyiv)
