Ὕμνος εἰς τὴν Ἐλευθερίαν (Greece and Cyprus)

सयौं थुँगा फूलका (Nepal)

La Dessalinienne / La Desalinyèn (Haiti) 

ملی سرود / سرود ملی (Afghanistan) 

Yumi, Yumi, Yumi (Vanuatu) 

Dear Land of Guyana, of Rivers and Plains (Guyana) Ὕμνος εἰς τὴν Ἐλευθερίαν (reprise)

MUSICATION*. The general idea was simple: political music. With most of the participating duets (Jan Jelinek and Kamil Szuszkiewicz, Jozef Van Vissem and Raphael Rogiński, Ray Dickaty and Sławomir Wojciechowski, Gloria Viagra and Sławek Belina) it went really fast, we developed the concepts almost immediately. But with Marcin and Candi it was somehow different. We spent a lot of time looking for the right idea. Some of the ideas we had were quite interesting, some: really stupid. Therefore, I perfectly remember the moment when Candi announced: „Anthems! Anthems of countries that are not doing very well!” The simplicity and the strength of this idea was striking. Just like the ambiguity of the result. Because what is the project’s ultimate message? Guyana, Haiti, Vanuatu… - maybe it’s about the Western guilt? Or, on the contrary, Western post-colonialism? But neither Afghanistan nor Nepal, despite British efforts, have never been colonised. And Greece is the West „per se”. And one more detail: Candi is Argentinian. So no, the (post)colonial interpretation is wrong, or at least not sufficient. What about the economical interpretation, then? That sounds more like it. Especially that during the realisation of the project, Greek economical crisis was much more of a topic than it is now. But on the other hand, what if I would tell you that Guyana has lower unemployment and higher GDP per capita rates than the average in the EU? And if - after telling you that - I tell you that it’s not true? Or if I ask you what is the capital city of Vanuatu? Let’s face it: if you’re - just like me - an average citizen of the West (in the broadest sense), there is a big chance that you just don’t know and might not care… As Candi says: "we don't want to wait for a catastrophy to have these either exotic or poorer countries come into the headlines; rather, we want to celebrate them out of randomness, in sloppish ignorance, for fear that they will be forgotten, and because their anthems are actually beautiful.” 

Wojtek Zrałek-Kossakowski 

* Krytyka Polityczna’s music programme I created in 2012 for the 7th Berlin Biennale (curated by Artur Żmijewski)