As part of Gallery Weekend 2025
Kherson’s vast shipyard looms large in the shadows of history. Situated in the Delta of Dnipro in southern Ukraine, it was once the largest shipbuilding site in the USSR, giving birth to Vishwa Asha – Universal Hope, a cargo ship built in 1974 during the Indo-Soviet partnership. Decades later, Vishwa Asha – Universal Hope is decommissioned or lost, a ghost ship drifting through the fractured narratives of war.
Image gallery
Anton Kats / ILYICH: After Hope
Anton Kats / ILYICH: After Hope
Anton Kats / ILYICH: After Hope
Created by artist Anton Kats, also known under the fluid, semi-fictional identity of musician ILYICH, After Hope blurs the boundaries between performance art, music concert, and exhibition to examine the processes by which hope is built. Set against the backdrop of the historical rise of fascism, the work embraces the temporality of transmigration and invites audiences aboard Vishwa Asha to sail the waves of birth, death and rebirth. Proposing sonic readings of the concepts like suchness, harmony and sisterhood, After Hope offers an anti-heroic strategy rooted in the politics of listening, care and renewal.
Installation
While the accompanying daytime exhibition features the sound installation Cemetery of Melodies Alive, the nighttime live performance weaves storytelling, music into and sound art into a visceral experience. Reflecting on anti-fascist artistic positions through the lens of the military invasion of Ukraine, the project is driven by a crucial question:
What is the responsibility of the artist in times of fascism and war? Beginning with hopeless hope, this performative exhibition invites the audience to fearlessly reflect on the intertwined narratives of the present and offers a space to imagine and enact another world after the storm.
(IN ENGLISH)
Additional information
With and by: Anton KatsWith the voice of: Susanne Sachsee
A production by Anton Kats in co-production with Sophiensæle and the Berlin Program for Artistic Research. Supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The sound installation Cemetery of Melodies Alive was commissioned by steirischer herbst. Media partners: Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.
A production by Anton Kats in co-production with Sophiensæle and the Berlin Program for Artistic Research. Supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The sound installation Cemetery of Melodies Alive was commissioned by steirischer herbst. Media partners: Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.
