“Dreams Station” is the latest iteration of Dejan Kaludjerović’s pan-global^[1], decade-long project “Conversations.” Each iteration, differing in form, integrates the outcomes of his audio-recorded interviews with children from various locations. In this project, he specifically presents the collected voices of children from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, recorded just one month before the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Out of a large pool of questions, Kaludjerović decided to focus on the question, “What are you dreaming about?” By juxtaposing these answers with the deserted, defunct, and mysterious Dnipro-Lotsmanska Station (formerly Southern Station), he highlights that, due to contextual socio-political limitations, the dreams are going south. A potentially glorious future is symbolized by the unforgettable landmark of the station building: the large mosaic ceramic panel The Metallurgists”^[2] which occupies an entire wall of one of the waiting rooms.While focusing on the idealized vision represented by these monumental bodies in the mosaic, the camera slowly zooms out, distancing the vision while encountering multiple spatial barriers. Dreams are unlikely to turn into reality, as they are sent off in the opposite direction from the embodiment of power and strength on the wall. All sorts of regressions are represented in this video: the initial focus is on what has now become the retrofuturistic mosaic, the camera’s backward orientation, and the regression of the transportation facility—all collectively witnessing and reflecting on the existence of art and life under destruction and abandonment.

Although both departure and arrival require bodily presence, Kaludjerović plays with figurative absence by concealing the children’s bodies. The only figures present are the monumental, colorful metallurgists on the mosaic, symbolizing an unachieved dream and a point of departure into decline. However, “Dreams Station” is a hybrid experience that combines elements of high-resolution video and acousmatic sound—audio recorded and emmited, heard without seeing its originating source—creating a mysterious and immersive auditory experience. Without revealing their origin, voices and a sort of metallic noise accumulated from daily life overlap to create a soundscape that echoes through the space, resulting in a sound performance that haunts the building.

The tacit tragedy conveyed by this video is that being unable to be sent off also means being unable to reach a safer space or the stage of maturity, thus being stuck in a perpetual cycle of emergencies, needs, and desires that can never be fulfilled. However, if dreams with a fantastic component serve as a defense mechanism^[3], protecting the ego from anxiety and distress, they also function as a psychological shield here. By participating in a conversation about dreams, children, as well as spectators, can symbolically confront and gain control over the things that frighten them, such as the decaying character of the abandoned train station. “Dreams Station” uses dreams to confront harsh realities with fantasy, aiming to create an environment of hope. If it cannot create the reality of salvation, it at least generates some tension by exploring the discrepancy between aspirations and possibilities and the impossibility of action.