Online Exhibition

*Picture: Masha Gyurova; Foto: Paul Robeson vor dem Bolschoi-Theater in Moskau; N. N. © Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Paul-Robeson-Archiv, Nr. 477, Bild 4.*

Entangled Voices. The Paul Robeson Project

An exhibition by Alexey Markin
Curated by Nikita Kotliar

Participants:
Music & Performance: Maria Markina (musical director, vocals)
Arkadiy Kots Band: Kirill Medvedev, Oleg Zhuravlev, Nikolay Oleynikov; Leonid Kharlamov, Ziad Nehme, Boris Vogeler, David Osaodion Odiase, Inge Mandos, Natalia Babich (vocals, poetry reading, musical accompaniment).
Sound & Production: Dmitrii Lukinykh, Andrey Nesteruk, Maria Markina

About

Entangled Voices. The Paul Robeson Project tells the story of a remarkable concert that took place in Moscow in 1949. On that evening, the African American singer, actor, and civil rights activist Paul Robeson performed, as an encore, the Jewish partisan song “Zog nit keyn mol,” also known as the «Song of the Warsaw Ghetto». He dedicated it to “his friend Solomon Michoels,” who had been murdered a year earlier in Minsk by Soviet secret services. According to eyewitness accounts, Robeson’s interpretation of the song provoked a powerful emotional response—ranging from shock to a sense of liberation—against the backdrop of antisemitic repression targeting the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and campaigns against so-called “rootless cosmopolitans.”

The exhibition emerged from a research project on Paul Robeson, during which a new version of “Zog nit keyn mol” was also recorded. For this recording, artist Alexey Markin invited the Russian antifascist group «Arkadiy Kots», along with other musicians. Together, the participants ask: What power do Robeson’s song and his legacy carry today—for those who dare to resist in Russia and elsewhere?