Weronika Trojanska

An audio composition consisting of multiple artists’ voices expressing their views on closing the “firmament,” an artistic and political gesture in solidarity with the victims of the war in Ukraine.

Presented on the 52nd Day of the Russian Invasion in Ukraine.

"I remember what the sky was like before the war. All the sunsets and sunrises. And now, here, in the shelter, this luxury is no longer available to me. I haven’t seen the sky in seven days."

—words of a war victim in Kiev

Close The Sky: this sentence has become a kind of slogan of this war, even seen by some as president Zelensky’s "bargaining chip" to convince NATO countries to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine. “Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people. I have a dream. These words are known to each of you today. I can say: I have a need. I need to protect our sky,” he speaks out.

In times where words like beastly, vicious, or inhuman seem too soft to describe the madness of Russian invasion in its neighboring country, Close The Sky sounds almost like a poetic, dreamy statement. How can one physically close the sky if we can’t even touch it? But at the same time lives of many human beings depend on it.

It is also the title of a book of poetry by Jayanta Mahapatra (published in 1971), in whose poems “Nothing is what it seems and what it seems to be is nothing.” In Ukrainian reality described by Volodymyr Yermolenko “A window is not a window [and] light is not light” anymore. Suddenly, they have to be read in terms of potential threat that they may bring. A shattered pane can kill you and a lamp can turn you into a target. That the sky returns to its original meaning is a wish for Ukraine.

Organized by Jeff Perkins