Not made of stone, but of ether/Не з каменю, а з ефіру
– historical imprints, multiple languages
imprints from archival material/animation, 23:18mn (2025)
Lviv is a city built on rivers, streams, and springs. A city on the European watershed. Miasto na europejskim dziale wód. The Poltva flows underground through the center of Lviv. The film „Не з каменю, а з ефіру“ envisions the city as a body, whose main artery whose pulses unseen beneath its streets.. Ի՞նչ ռիթմով է բաբախում մի քաղաքի սիրտը? В якому ритмі б‘ються серця міст? אין ריטעם קלאַפּן די הערצער פֿון אַ שטאָט? The city becomes a living body, transforming through historical rhythms, breathing, speaking with many voices at once. Якими мовами говорить історія? Welche Sprachen spricht Geschichte? Based on photographs from the Center for Urban History Archive, historical drawn imprints have been created which in the film are animated as vivid fragments of a multilingual, multi-perspectival histories. Literary references to the city of Lviv appear in seven languages, woven into a dense text that argues for including the invisible within historical perception. Ultimately, the film poses a larger question: How can history be told in its complexity and polyphony? What is heard, seen, imagined? And how can imperial grammars, inscribed in the languages themselves and perpetuated in historiographies, be deconstructed? имерпиальные грамматики, imperial grammars. The artist Irène Mélix appears in the soundtrack as a learner – a voice approaching some of the languages spoken in Lviv during the last century, inscribing an open, searching gesture into the historical narration. Can you teach me the future tense in Ukrainian? ми будемо, ми вдихнемо.
First screening @JamFactory Lviv on 22th of September 2025, 7pm Kyiv time
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOvokk2DMD7/?igsh=OWZtbWJiaWVkNGox
On the basis of images from the Center for Urban History Archiv Lviv
Reisdenz in Lviv (Ukraine), Jam Factory (September 2024)
In cooperation with Pochen Bienale Chemnitz, Jam Factory in Lviv, WRO Art Center Wroclaw, HELLERAU in Dresden
Voices: Armenian: Jasmin Yan, English: Angelina Seibert, German/Learning: Irène Mélix, Polish: Dominika Kintzler, Ukranian/Russian: Sasha Kantser, Ukranian: Veronika Smetana, Yiddish: Dr. Annelie Bachmaier
Research/Skript/Recording/Cutting: Irène Mélix
Sound Editing: SONIC MUSIC Tonstudio, Carsten Zeise
Compositing: Balance Film GmbH, Francie Liebschner
Thanks to Lviv Center for Urban History Archive
Thanks for the historical and linguistic support to: Prof. Dr. Armin Eidherr, Dr. Annelie Bachmaier
Special thanks to: Kim Brian Dudek, Benjamin Gruner, Mariia Buria, Bozhena Pelenska, Alexandra Bondarev.
This film was made following an artist residency in Lviv, September 2024.
Thanks to the kind support of the Pochen Biennale Chemnitz.
In cooperation with Pochen Biennale Chemnitz, HELLERAU Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden, Jam Factory Lviv, WRO Media Art Biennale
