ALEXEY KOKHANOV

LITANY

A participatory performance

Duration: 60 min.

In performance “Litany” vocalist and sound artist Alexey Kokhanov invites audience to join the ritual dedicated to the memory of the victims of the war in Ukraine. Alexey will sustain a single note for entire hour. The audience is free to join the singing and to feel the support of one another.

There are 20-30 chairs in the space forming a circle. A performer sits on one of them and repeats the same sound for an hour. Spectators are invited to read the instructions and, if they wish, participate in the performance - join those sitting in a circle and sing. Spectators themselves determine the time of their stay in the performance, at any moment they can leave the circle.

Instruction for audience:

1. Take a seat.

2. Listen.

3. If you wish, sing the same note.

4. Feel free to stay as long you want.

After the liberation of the Ukrainian Bucha on March 31, 2022, photos of killed civilians spread around the world. Many of them were killed while blindfolded. During the 8 days of occupation of the village, the Russian military killed 489 residents. 90% of the dead were found to have bullet wounds and not shrapnel, many had signs of torture. Many of the victims were never identified.
The Litany performance arose as a reaction to these events, from the impossibility of doing something. It is a ritual, a litany, with the aim of paying tribute to the memory of the dead nameless victims of the war.
Litany, as one of the forms of collective prayer or request, invites viewers to join in and share the pain of loss. The author of the performance offers one of the possible ways of working with trauma, liberation through the collective singing. The repetition of the same sound stops time, immerses you in the feeling of the present moment. When we dive into listening, we notice that each sound is unique and unrepeatable. 

 The Litany performance is inspired by the Pauline Oliveros method, which aims to draw attention to the surrounding sound atmosphere.
Here we try to listen to the global atmosphere - the political noise, or rather the rumble. To come together to feel the extent of the tragedy and awake to take the time to think about the victims - as a tribute to the nameless civilians killed during the Russian occupation of Ukraine.