Kuba Dorabialski

Invocation Trilogy 3: CONNECTION OF THE STICKS

Single channel video with stereo sound, Pan-Slavic ficto-language with English subtitles, 82'16", 2021.

The final and longest episode of Dorabialski's Invocation Trilogy, Connection of the Sticks (2021) maps out numerous locations throughout Eastern Europe, linking them together to culminate in one giant and preposterous act to bring on the dawn of a mystical and revolutionary future.

Performed in Dorabialski’s own fictional Slavic language — designed to be partly intelligible to most Slavic language speakers — Connection of the Sticks investigates what it means to explore memories, real and distorted, as a migrant who now lives in Australia.

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Conceived through the lens of his biographical ties to Eastern Europe, Kuba Dorabialski’s Invocation Trilogy is a series of videos that reflect on language, politics, and cultural memory.

Beginning in 2017 with the award-winning Floor Dance of Lenin’s Resurrection, Dorabialski set the tone with a narrative that blends history with fiction and the absurd.

Leaning heavily on cinematic tradition, the trilogy pulls focus on the turbulent history and fraught boundaries of Eastern Europe from the perspective of a deeply invested onlooker, while embracing and challenging its clichés and stereotypes.

Invocation Trilogy was installed at Carriageworks but never opened to the public due to Sydney's Covid-19 lockdowns of 2021. The exhibition migrated online.

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Carriageworks exhibition curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham (August - October 2021)

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Artbank collection, purchased 2022.