Rooms Left Behind
Amy Sze & Anya Ostrovskaia
Two rooms, one from Hong Kong and one from Moscow,
left by their owners fleeing for freedom.
4400 miles apart, different languages, distant cultures,
except that the walls eternize tear gas and tears.
遺 комнаты (wai-komnaty, or ‘Rooms left behind’) brings you on an immersive journey into the intimate world of complex identities and a glimpse of political immigration. Working with a Ukrainian artist who has had to flee Russia, and Hong Kong artists who left their city, the theatrical installation explores the idea of what it means to be to leave your home and life behind.
Step into the abandoned room to see, touch and feel where someone lived, loved and grieved. Wonder around the tables and chairs to unveil one’s traces of existence. Let the bookshelves and beds whisper to you stories of the displaced shadows.
“Rooms Left Behind is a powerful, thoughtful and stirring piece. It draws together two of our world’s most significant struggles against oppression and brings us directly into the people and spaces most impacted by tyranny. We were very proud to have commissioned this work as part of UpLIFTed project featuring promising young curators and producers as part of LIFT 2022.”
Kris Nelson, Artistic Director/CEO, LIFT
Producer
Director
Performers
Scenographer
Videographer
Main image designer
Amy Sze
Anya Ostrovskaia, Amy Sze
Gun Suen, Tanya Kargaeva
Jacob Wu, Jeffrey Choy
Tatiana Knyazeva
Chuk Edwin Yin Man, Ekaterina Vorobei
Supported by LIFT, a LIFT 2022 Commission as part of UpLIFTed - LIFT's festival of work created by London's next gen creatives