From 2 to 12 September, the 83rd Venice Film Festival will present the immersive sound installation Memories by Ukrainian artist Sofia Bulgakova as part of the Venice Immersive program in the “Best Experiences” section, Divoche.Media reports.
Memories is a work made from dozens of meters of insulation pipes that, through sound, convey the experience of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to Bulgakova, the piece is built on sound artifacts drawn both from the artist’s personal experience of being abroad and returning home, and from collective testimonies and conversations with her friends, relatives, and strangers, as well as recordings from social networks and media about “moments of the extraordinary within everyday reality.”
“By opening one channel at a time and layering sounds through the pipes, viewers are immersed in a nonlinear narrative woven from my intimate experiences,” Bulgakova explains.
The insulation pipes themselves were first found at a shipbuilding yard in Amsterdam in 2018, where many men from Ukraine worked. At the time, Bulgakova created a similar installation from such pipes titled Sonic Sprawl.
In 2025, for the installation Memories, Bulgakova received an honorary distinction in the “State of the ART(ist)” competition as part of the Austrian digital arts festival Ars Electronica. “State of the ART(ist)” is dedicated to artists who face threats to their lives due to repression, political persecution, armed conflict, environmental disasters, exploitation, and more.
Sofia Bulgakova is an interdisciplinary artist from Odesa who currently lives in the Netherlands. She works with XR (“Extended reality”), artificial intelligence, immersive installation, sound, and performance. In her work, Bulgakova explores embodiment, collective experience, and cultural memory. Her works have been presented in exhibitions in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Austria, and other countries.