“Singing”. Recitatives of Silent Screams in the Foyer of the Lviv Opera
On October 9 at 5:00 PM, in the foyer of the Lviv National Opera, the painting exhibition “Singing” by Serhiy Savchenko will open as part of the celebrations marking the theatre’s 125 th anniversary. The exhibition will run until February 2026.
The project is a kind of remix of a large-scale concept developed between 2008–2012 and first presented in the series “The Other” during the Week of Contemporary Art in Lviv and at GogolFest in Kyiv. Today, Savchenko returns to these images in the form of twelve monumental canvases (2×2 m) and group portraits, which appear as a visual choir — both singing and silent at the same time.
The uniqueness of the exhibition lies in the bold intrusion of expressive, almost gothic imagery into the baroque interior of the Opera. Where musical opulence and an atmosphere of leisure usually prevail, the viewer is confronted with a tense dialogue between painting and architecture, past and present.
The series “Singing” refers to the idea of recitative: repeated rounded faces with dark open mouths create a rhythm reminiscent of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”, while transforming it into a “silent scream” — voices that resound and then fade into silence.
“It is not a cry about what has already happened, but rather about what is yet to come,” the artist emphasizes.
The exhibition at the Lviv Opera is not only a display of painting, but also a performative experience — an encounter with a collective choir of images that transform the foyer into a resonant space of dramatic memory, faith, and hope.
The exhibition is organized in cooperation with Savchenko Foundation and Savchenko Gallery (Gdańsk, Poland).
