Bohdan Bunchak
“Who Would Go for Us?”, 2024, video with sound, 10′
The film was created within the framework of the INDEX program of the Institute of Documentation and Interaction six months after Bohdan was discharged from the Armed Forces of Ukraine due to injuries sustained during another assault in the Serebrianskyi Forest near Kreminna in Luhansk oblast. The work consists of six fragments assembled from found video and audio recordings that resonate with the artist’s personal experiences.
It is a kind of response to the question of what returning to “civilian life” means for Bohdan after a difficult turning point in his own experience, without a clear understanding of how to return. At the same time, the video addresses the theme of survivor’s guilt and the burden of responsibility for those who were killed. The artist reflects on his experience and his sense of personal responsibility and duty through the prism of his own faith: the title of the work refers to a passage in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. To God’s question, Isaiah responds: “Here I am, send me!” The question in the film’s title can be addressed to both Ukrainians and foreigners, Bohdan says.
