Context and aesthetics
The piece was built on contrast. Physical earth, which Sofiia symbolically drew out from under her skin, sat against digital images of Ukrainian fields carrying the scars of war. Glitch and AI processing turned those real traces of destruction into a new, shared narrative, in real time.
How it unfolded
In Kraków I played a music set built from processed field recordings of the sounds of war, layering trauma and memory in sound. In Amsterdam, Sofiia led a ritual of rebirth with earth and fire, singing operatically. The audience saw both realities on one screen. "Grounding" was meant literally: soil and digital image joined, bridging physical touch and virtual space.
Watch the performance
People took part both in the room and remotely, living this hybrid ceremony as it happened. The Grounding became a metaphor for grounding ourselves together in the face of crisis, where digital technology and raw earth wove into one story about survival and memory.