The public educational program will present a multi-layered exploration of key themes from artist Alina Brovina's exhibition through different perceptual modes. Art mediation at the exhibition opening (with Ira Frenkel, curator of the mediation and archive department at the Radio House) will unfold in a dialogue between personal trauma and political gesture, myth and modernity, rigid imperial narratives and soft bodily memory. The performative part of the program will translate these concepts into the realm of bodily and sensory experience, where Dido's aria is deconstructed and lament becomes a practice of liberation. Film screenings and workshops will create a space for personal engagement, allowing viewers to touch the echoes of the ancient myth and the exhibition's themes through sound and tactile experience.
Workshop by Alexandra Abakshina: “My Voice as My Personal Voice Assistant”
Date: November 1, 5:00 PM
The workshop invites participants to transform inner dialogue into a tool for self-care. We will create personal support texts — the words we most need to hear in moments of doubt or sorrow. During the session, you will learn to formulate these messages so they resonate with your inner state. Then, through a short training session on vocal technique and intonation, we will infuse these phrases with a living, confident energy. The final step will be recording your voice on your personal device — creating a unique audio artifact you can use in everyday life. This workshop is an opportunity to turn the recorded voice into a vital resource.
Facilitator: Alexandra Abakshina — director, artist, author of the "Sirens" course on voice training and speech technique for creative individuals, curator of the "Atelier Without Mirrors" gallery, co-founder of the post-anatomical theater Maailmanloppu (2016); participant in residencies at the Garage Museum (2021) and the GES-2 House of Culture (2024).
ONLINE Lecture by Vsevolod Zelchenko: “The Death of Dido”
Date: November 10, 6:30 PM
European culture knows of Dido's tragic fate through Virgil; it is the fourth book of the Aeneid that underlies all subsequent reception of this narrative — from the medieval Romance of Aeneas and Renaissance artists to Anna Akhmatova and Joseph Brodsky. Yet remarkably, we imagine Dido's death differently than how Virgil described it. This example serves as an occasion to discuss how ancient poets treated ancient myths, and how the Modern era treated ancient poets.
Lecturer: Vsevolod Zelchenko, classical philologist, research fellow at the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran), Yerevan.
Performance: “Dido: deconstructed”
Date: November 28, 8:00 PM
The performance will serve as a sonic double of the exhibition, where Dido's aria from Henry Purcell's opera travels from a fragile baroque melody to a stream of noise. Pianist Alexandra Listova, working with a toy instrument, will extract from it ghostly, childhood memories of music, as if finding fragments of that very opera. Electronic musician Salavat Safiullin will fragment these pieces, layering over them the noises of decay — the crackle of a fire, the rustle of ash, the beating of a heart. Vocalist Maria Kulaeva will become the voice of Dido herself, passing through all stages of grief: from pure singing to breaking into a whisper. Together, they will create a score of disintegration, where each note turns to dust, and the memory of love dissolves into the restless landscape of sound.
Performance participants:
Alexandra Listova — pianist and artistic director of JUST Ensemble, regular member of the Music Aeterna orchestra
Salavat Safiullin — musician, improviser, sound producer, participant in numerous Russian and international contemporary music festivals
Maria Kulaeva — soprano, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Music School
Workshop by Alina Brovina: “Map of Tenderness / Map of Scars”
Date: November 29, 1:00 PM
Materials: watercolor, ink, old maps, fabric, threads.
During the workshop, participants will transform geographical maps into a personal topography of feelings. Watercolor washes will settle as lakes of longing; scars embroidered with threads will become riverbeds of memory. Mountains of expectation and valleys of loss, marked with ink and stitches, will appear on the map's surface. A tactile collage will connect physical geography with bodily memory, creating a unique document of inner landscape. The finished object will become a material testament to your emotional experience.
During the workshop, experimental electronic music by artists DDSD and UFsp will be played, and video art by gmm will be shown.
Workshop duration: 1.5 hours
