“Спомини [Spomyny]” (2024) is a Ukrainian word for “memories” or even “memoirs”. The work of Sophia Bulgakova with this title is an experience deriving from personal and communal accounts of the recent two years of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the form of sonic artefacts collected by Sophia, which presents itself through the installation created out of meters and meters of insulation pipes. 

Discovering one channel at a time and layering the sounds through the pipes, the audience is invited to unveil a non-linear narrative assembled out of intimate encounters of the artist and her struggles in between being abroad and returning home in the past years, collected testimonies and conversations with friends, family and strangers in Ukraine, found footage recordings through social media and news channel which capture glimpses of extreme experiences within everyday reality. 

The piece originates from an earlier work by Sophia Bulgakova called “Sonic Sprawl” using the same physical material, the “Спомини [Spomyny]” delves deeper into the theme of personalised storytelling and references the source of the insulation tubing, which was found in 2018 at a shipyard in Amsterdam where a lot of men from a Ukrainian community were working at the time.

Credits: 

Technical Production & Sound Design:

Ymer Marinus

Sound recording contributions:

Ivan Skoryna, Liza Golubova, Diana Remizovska, Ievgen Velychev & everyone wanting to remain anonymous.

Спомини [Spomyny] is commissioned by Rewire in collaboration with iii.