On November 10th, the Russian House in Brussels hosted a uniquely formatted event. Our guests were immersed in the ambiance of Russia through Dominique Kopp’s soundscape, titled ‘Russia – Coronation of the Phoenix?’

In a dimly lit auditorium, attendees enjoyed a compilation of audio excerpts, music, sound bites, and recordings of speeches by key figures in Russian history. The soundscape had a profound impact on the audience, enabling them to experience the atmosphere of Russia, sense the chill of harsh winters, and relive crucial historical moments that shaped the country’s destiny.

After the soundscape concluded, the guests lingered for an extended period, actively exchanging impressions while sipping on glasses of wine

Land with extreme geography and tormented history. Old Empire, several times collapsed. Each time raised. A first in world history. Russia does not resign itself to a certain order of the world. With the large reserves of hydrocarbons sleeping under the midnight sun, it has a trump card to chart its own course. Like the phoenix, Russia now seems to be reborn from its frozen ashes. «Russia, the coronation of the phoenix?»  thus compose a drifting navigation between these extremes to try to explore the wake of a journey back from hell, but tirelessly raising the anchor, provided that some inaccessible star still shines from the sacred fire of dreams or an imperial splendor…

Boarding for a sound crossing of this Russian real. A real excess, traversed by ambivalence, life, death, beauty, horror, whiteness and darkness, pushed to their ultimate limits. Entrenchments, in which perhaps lie some secrets of this astonishing Russian endurance. This painful brotherhood of summits and abysses…

Writer-film director Dominique Kopp uses her pen and microphone to explore geographical and human horizons that open the door to dreams, poetry and thought.

Passionate about volcanoes, the polar regions and geopolitics, she has devoted numerous articles to them, as well as a short film about her trip to Antarctica, “Par-delà les banquises”, made with the support of the International Polar Foundation and SCAM.

She also collected sounds from the trip and produced her first sound piece, Vers la forteresse blanche (Towards the White Fortress), for the programme Ouïe Dire (RTBF).

Today, she is pursuing her sound landscape into the realms of geopoetics, at the crossroads of the undercurrents that irrigate our reality.