The Last Artwork about the War
Information
2024, 4K video, stereo sound, 21 min., in loop
Commissioned and produced by Steirischer herbst ’24
With the kind support of ERSTE Foundation
A daring claim stands behind Nikolay Karabinovych’s new film, namely to be the last work about Russia’s continuing assault on Ukraine—possibly in all of art. It looks at the war from the unusual angle of a psychoanalytic session.
This is the story of a man, who once got lost, and now trying to find some answers.
The reluctant patient dreams of ending therapy and finding liberation—a liberation that turns out to be identical with that from enemy occupation in an endless war. The dialogue between therapist and patient soon takes a turn for the absurd in the tradition of modernist theater. In their conversation, personal, historical, and political dimensions meld and fuse, evoking ambiguous images of victory and liberation that might never be attained.
What does it mean to win?
Victory “Победа” is a Soviet car, a 44-gun sailing frigate of the Azov and then the Russian Black Sea Navy, launched in 1782, a passenger ship that appeared in the film “The Diamond Arm” called “Mikhail Svetlov”, a Russian budget airline, a part of Aeroflot, a disappeared village in the Dzhankoy district, a toponym in the community of Backa Topola, in the North Backa district of the autonomous region of Vojvodina, an abandoned Soviet remote Antarctic station and a brand of watch.
Exhibitions
2024 Graz, Neue Galerie Graz
Press