Act I — Entering the trance
White pedestals and costumes turned the space into something like a sacred feast. Sofiia recited a mantra she wrote herself, part prayer and part hymn of praise, in Ukrainian and English. Fragments of "Ukraina 86" by Osiedelec played as a gesture of memory. Alongside the text came the ritual actions: a dance tracing the circulation of energy, and words written onto participants' faces as an initiation into the rite.
Act II — Ritual and response
The action centred on five tables standing for the elements: sand, light, mechanism, sound, and water. Each came with its own ritual formula ("як в піску я копаюся — з атомною енергією єднаюся", "as I merge with every sound, atomic echoes spin around"). Performers and audience drew in the sand and arranged stones, becoming co-authors of the ritual. The technology (TouchDesigner, an electronic synth, a Korg Kaoss Pad) was part of the sacred action, not a backdrop to it. A key moment was the radio's "answer": a receiver placed near the nearby power plant gave back a calm, gentle signal that the room took as a blessing.
Act III — Explosion and gnosis
The finale built through rising music, voice, and glitch visuals, with the lines "ядерним світлом ми осяяні / ядерним словом ми сказані / ядерним ми є" — by nuclear light we are illuminated, by the nuclear word we are spoken, nuclear we are. The lowest pedestal held a mirror that returned the audience's own image to them, making them participants. At the centre stood a black "cloud" of cables, light, and foil bags glowing from within, like a body raised from the dead, or a Pandora's box. It was never opened. That final opening was left to each viewer, as inner work.
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Symbolism and aesthetics
The whiteness and "sacred" look deliberately pushed against the stereotype of nuclear energy as purely dark and destructive. The choice was confrontational: to show that fear of the atom mirrors our fear of what we ourselves have made, a metaphor the mirror made literal. Glitch and noise gave the "nuclear goddess" a visual and sonic body: chaotic and overwhelmingly powerful. The five elements acted as intermediaries, a semantic magic for making contact with the atom's energy.
Sofiia went into the immersion without fear, as the initiator inviting the energy in. The audience fell into a kind of trance: some held an enchanted stillness, others physically joined in, drawing in the sand and laying stones. Nuclear Gnosis ended up being less an art event than a collective practice of remembering 1986, one that left each viewer with a trace and room to continue the ritual inside themselves.