Family Resemblance
sound installation and performance by Alexey Kokhanov
28.03.2025 18:00 – 22:00, performance at 19:00
29.03.2025 15:00 – 20:00, performance at 16:00
Kleiner Wasserspeicher | 10405 Berlin
entrance from Diedenhofer Strasse
In June 1991 Alexey went on holiday to Tashkent, Uzbekistan with his father and two brothers. That was the last summer of the Soviet Union before its collapse in December 1991. A personal tragedy in the family – the loss of his mother and father occurred in parallel with political events in Russia. On the second trip, more than 30 years later, Alexey tries to trace the preconditions for the catastrophe in his memories, reconstructing feelings of anxiety, longing for his mother, fear and love for his father.
Installation and performance FAMILY RESEMBLANCE is a reflection on this two trips. Video projections of landscapes and sights of Uzbekistan, processed field recordings of the journey are the frame of the vocal performance. Alexey combines original compositions, diary texts and interpretations of songs into a sound collage, creating a space of memory of personal mythology.
FAMILY RESEMBLANCE reveals how the personal and the political are inextricably linked. The protection that citizens expect from the empire is illusory. Addressing the theme of propaganda in the paintings of Vasily Vereshchagin, Alexey tries to discern the unsaid, to guess the personal tragedies hidden behind the pictures of victories and triumphs of the empire.
Alexey Kokhanov is a voice, sound, and performance artist based in Berlin. He works at the interface between contemporary music and experimental performance. Alexey’s artistic practice explores the different aspects of voice — from physiological to its aesthetics and politics.