Historical overview:
Anyone familiar with Polish history will remember September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, claiming that their reason for doing so was to protect persecuted ethnic Germans. Soon after, the Soviet army joined in, asserting that they were there to help persecuted Ukrainians and Belarusians. 

Today, Putin’s troops are doing the same, under the guise of protecting Ukrainian citizens from "Ukrainian fascists and nationalists," who they accuse of committing genocide in Donbas. This rhetoric is eerily reminiscent of the tactics used by Hitler and Stalin. 

We are currently witnessing the end of the post-1989 era, and the consequences could be profound and globally reaching. Ukrainians have endured incredible hardships throughout history, struggling to defend their state amid Russification, repression, and oppression. Suffering through famine, Nazi occupation, and Stalinist terror, they still continue to proclaim that "Ukraine is not yet lost." They repeat this mantra in defiance of Putin's lies, as he views the world as his own personal sandbox to do with as he pleases. Individuals like Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Nemtsov, and Alexei Navalny faced persecution for speaking the truth and advocating for democracy, but the world must reject acquiescence to this criminal regime. Silence can all too easily be seen as an approval of tyranny. We need only look to history to see the dangers of ignoring totalitarian demands—whether it be Munich in 1938 or Yalta in 1945. 


Let us not follow that path. 


We must declare clearly: We are all Ukrainians now. From Warsaw to Berlin, Paris to London, we must recognize that Ukrainians fight not only for themselves but for our freedom as well.


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We Are All Ukrainians Now / Silent Symphony for Orchestra is a striking two-channel video installation exhibited in two distinct spaces. Created in collaboration with the acclaimed Ukrainian composer Oleksandr Shymko, the film challenges the conventions of the traditional symphony. It addresses audiences in the West and reflects C.T. Jasper and Joanna Malinowska's ongoing explorations of the world's periphery—an experience from which they are also coming—as a topic that is often misunderstood, overlooked, or non-existent in the global discussion. 

In this unique composition, the absence of a conductor creates an atmosphere of shared experience rather than traditional orchestral hierarchy. Musicians must step into the role of performers, breathing life into Shymko’s evocative score, which draws inspiration from the visceral images emerging from the frontlines and beleaguered cities of Ukraine. The work powerfully conveys the relentless cadence of war: the jarring sounds of air raid sirens slice through the air, then the haunting silence that comes after explosions, interspersed with powerful, silent gestures of defiance. Jasper and Malinowska have masterfully edited this intricate tapestry of sound and image into a digital score for the composer and musicians. The video and musical elements are purposefully synchronized to a precise length of 8 minutes and 37 seconds, a poignant homage to the duration of Krzysztof Penderecki’s searing 1960 Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima.

This installation is enriched by the deep-rooted legacy of art as a form of cultural resistance, invoking the spirit of clandestine concerts, secret galleries, and subversive murals that have historically provided a voice of dissent—a tradition that the artists are no strangers to. One striking example is Jasper’s work, Sunset of the Pharaohs, in which he digitally erased the actors from the entire 184-minute film Pharaoh (1966), directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz and filmed in Łódź, Poland. With the characters removed, viewers are left with the haunting voids and evocative landscapes of the film’s artificially constructed sets. It is from this vast emptiness that visual poetry blossoms as a crucial means of expression, channeling the frustrations and hopes born of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Like Jasper and Malinowska’s previous collaborative work, Halka/Haiti 18°48'05"N 72°23'01"W—which intricately weaves together the colonial histories of Poland and Haiti through opera—We Are All Ukrainians Now / Silent Symphony for Orchestra cultivates a sense of cross-cultural solidarity by crafting a new type of libretto, one rich with themes of grief, resilience, and a hopeful vision for renewal. Here, the artists carefully intertwine the diverse identities of those united, once again, under a shared purpose.

This work defies casual consumption. It embodies a sacred space for witness and contemplation. It urges us to open our eyes and listen with our deepest consciences and compels us to engage intimately with the narratives unfolding around us in real time. This is a symphony devoid of applause, where the profound power of presence reigns, and where silence emerges as a poignant form of protest, resonating deeply in the hearts of those who engage with it.