INFO
Olena Shykina
olenashykina@gmail.com
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Olena Shykina is a Kyiv-based composer and sound artist whose practice grows from a research-driven, conceptual approach shaped by her background in linguistics, product and experience design; and a deep love for cinema, literature, theater, and fine art. Aiming for a bold, holistic, and highly expressive sonic language, she approaches sound as a cohesive system defined by the correspondence of spirit and matter. Her work investigates the physical sensation of sound — how it expands, resonates, interacts with the body, and takes on a sculptural multidimensionality in space.
Using electroacoustic methods, noise, high-frequency oscillations, granular processes, and real-time manipulation, she builds sonic environments that are expressive, bright, and physically present. The result is a practice that bridges design thinking with musical experimentation: structured yet visceral, concept-driven yet intensely emotional, expanding the listener’s sense of sonic volume, energy, and tactility.
CV
GAIA-24. OPERA DEL MONDO DESCRIPTION
GAIA-24. OPERA DEL MONDO
PERFORMANCES
The October Palace, Kyiv, 2024
Theater Rotterdam, O. Festival, Rotterdam, 2024
Odeon Theater, Musiktheatertage, Wien, 2024
Church of San Lorenzo, Venice Biennale, Venice, 2024
KINDL - Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin, 2025
Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theater, Kyiv, 2025
DESCRIPTION
When the earth gives a rich harvest, be ready for a great war. When the seas dry up, the rivers change their courses, and the forests become uninhabitable due to radiation – the empire will soon fall. When the end of the world comes, the earth and the sky merge into one endless line. This is how Gaia, Gaia, Terra, Maga, Mother Gaia speak to us.
The electronics for the performance GAIA-24 is an exploration of the pure physics of sound, where micro-frequencies of different types of waves and their interactions form the sonic environment. My main reference points in the opera were the ‘nakedness’ of the sound, its purity and fundamentality — the feeling of a ‘primordial sound’.
TEAM:
Music, libretto, dramaturgy, scenography, choreography, directing:
Roman Grygoriv, Illia Razumeiko
Producers: Olga Diatel, Volodymyr Burkovets, Yuliia Parysh (proto produckiia)
Costume designer: Kateryna Markush
Director of photography: Denys Melnyk
Live-electronics and live-video: Olena Shykina
Sound director of the recording: Andrii Nidzelskyi
Traditional dance consultant: Olena Dudka
Ethnomusicological research: Marichka Shtyrbulova, Yuliia Vitraniuk
Stage manager: Iryna Onishchuk
Artists:
Marichka Shtyrbulova
Yuliia Vitraniuk
Sofiia Pavlichenko
Kateryna Hordiienko
Yekatierina Bysheva
Karolina Muzychenko
Alisa Kuznetsova
Oleksandr Chyshii
Danylo Zubkov
Aik Yehiian
Illia Razumeiko
Organization: OPERA APERTA, proto produkciia
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