Art. Solidarity. Resistance Kyiv, 2021 Contents↳02_03 Curatorial text↳04_05 Glossary↳06_13 Works↳14_65 Team↳66_67 Partners↳68 “Every day” is the slogan protesters in Belarus shout to Outraged by the falsification of the election results, people emphasize the duration and rhythm of the resistance, to express across the country took to the streets to protest against the state confidence that the protests will continue tomorrow, that they violence, which resulted in legal default. The resistance movement will not end. Since the first nights of police violence and days of began spontaneously and remains decentralized. It is arranged mass mobilization in early August 2020, this phrase has reflected like a net, like water, like the endless process of embroidery. the temporality of the struggle. Amid the ongoing political crisis, Unlike tactics of occupation, the mass actions are aimed at filling the phrase “every day” unites people in a joint promise to take the space like molecules. In the absence of distinct leaders, to the streets. The exhibition borrows this slogan and focuses marches by women, pensioners and people with disabilities, on exploring solidarity, “weak” resistance tactics, revolutionary strikes, student demonstrations, and doctors’ solidarity chains poetics, technological infrastructures, mechanisms of state are being organized. A new social sculpture is emerging that is violence, the emotional landscape, spatial and architectural self-forming and removes the hierarchy between professional art dimensions of the protests. and grassroots creativity, where a street statement can become This exhibition draws upon artistic practices that resonate more pointed and accurate than an artistic project. with the history and present moment of protest movements Like this protest movement, which does not have a center, and solidarity networks. The emancipatory potential of art is this exhibition — its architecture, concept and curation — manifested in the variety of forms and techniques. The art in the does not have a rigid linear structure. The space is organized exhibition explores, models, and tests political reality, it becomes along a series of conceptual nodes running through the whole a direct criticism of power, an act of dissent. Engagement, exhibition that represent the ten terms in the exhibition glossary. involvement, and opposition to official ideology is a principled They form “gravitational fields” that help to contextualize the position of many cultural workers in Belarus. artistic processes that are emerging against the backdrop The social fabric is being strengthened through increased of a deep systemic crisis. All the artworks in the exhibition are solidarity, volunteering, mutual assistance, and neighborhood networked through these terms. The exhibition’s variable, mobile self-organization. Even before the presidential election, civil architecture echoes the dynamics of the unpredictable political society had begun to undertake government functions by helping situation in the country. doctors cope with the first wave of Covid-19. After the election, Being a gesture of solidarity with the revolutionary numerous civic initiatives began building an infrastructure to processes in Belarus, this exhibition presents a cross-section of help those who had been unfairly and unlawfully dismissed contemporary art that constructs and manifests pulsating forms from their jobs, beaten or arrested. The wave of solidarity, of interaction, resistance, collectiveness, and a future that we are support and care was strengthened through IT and digital already living today — every day. platforms, crowdsourcing, and citizen journalism. Contemporary art — both professional artistic practices and anonymous activist gestures — helped to create a distinct critical language.

04 05 Resistance Tactics Protest Choreography

In analyzing the Belarusian protests, researcher Almira Ousmanova Since August 2020, resistance has become a regular occurrence in underscores that this is a “protest of the multitude which every day Belarus — it is now a part of everyday life. A protest has its own rhythm, invents politics, constantly changing places and forms of protest using a its own dynamics, its own choreography. We can describe the location grassroots form of organization.”* She describes the constant and organization of protesters’ bodies in the urban space using the transformation of the resistance tactics that appear, flare up, coexist, concept of choreography. Physical presence itself is important and has and support one another in the protests. Unlike a single effort that is different forms: solidarity chains and single-person pickets, easily stopped, the decentralized, non-hierarchical, and networked demonstrations and assemblies with thousands of people, walks and nature of the protests allows the transformational potential to residential neighbourhood (dvory) parties, concerts and artistic actions. accumulate at the intersection of various forms of resistance — from The movement of the protests is diffused and decentralized: small spontaneous and natural, to organized and massive. They include direct groups flow together like water to form large columns. And this is the confrontation with security forces, marches by thousands of people, main feature of the protest movement — it’s everywhere, it’s not strikes, economic boycotts, queueing as political action, solidarity chains, interested in the center, it’s always flowing rather than occupying. Unlike residential neighbourhood (dvory) activities, “silent” resistance tactics, the passiveness of political language and monologue, an important hacking and cyber-guerilla activities, pickets, performances, political feature of protest choreography is the shared bodily experience. The posters, graffiti, dance, educational lectures,singing together, and many phrase “I’m walking” — what activist Nina Baginskaya said when she others. was stopped on the street by riot police, or “I’m going out!” — the last These actions can be performed live or in virtual space, by one message Raman Bandarenka sent to the chat group several minutes person or a group, involve local or national communities, be short-term before his death, became mobilizing slogans and defined the or long-term. The range of strategies, none of which can be considered choreography of the street protests. dominant or most effective, is a distinct feature of the Belarusian protests. The cumulative effect of using diverse tactics is reshaping the urban space, rewriting economic and social relations, and organizing parallel infrastructures. “Future Perfect Continuous”

* Almira Ousmanova. Digital Multitude: The Multiple that Takes over the One. It’s very difficult to envision the future of the protests in Belarus — 2020 / Online: New Eastern Europe what they will lead to, how and when they will end. The scenarios will change depending on the political views of those produce them — optimistic and dystopian, progressive and conservative — and they will all follow a normative chronology. But what if we suppose that the future is already here? What if the life we want — democratic, self-organized, feminist — is already happening now? Artist and researcher Olia Sosnovskaya describes this temporal paradox as the “future perfect continuous” — borrowing the grammatical tense in English that describes an action that began in the past, takes place in the present, and will continue in the future. This 06 07 tense captures duration and cuts through history. “Alive and Fragile” For example, as of March 25, 2021 the protests will have been going on for 228 days — every day. “By moving, mourning, organizing, “In prison, we are subjected to violence: both physical and exhausting, refusing, celebrating together, we simultaneously rehearse psychological, and its consequences haunt us for even longer. We are and exercise the future.”* Future perfect continuous refers to all the alive and fragile,”* LGBTK+ activist Vika Biran writes in her prison diary. complex relationships between the protests, time, history, and calendar. She notes that her story is both unique and mundane. It is mundane because “there are a lot of us.” Since the protests started in August 2020, * Olia Sosnovskaya. Future Perfect Continuous. more than 30,000 Belarusians have been arrested, jailed and subjected 2020 / Online: Ding Ding Ding Magazine to violence. The continuous ebb and flow of confidence and fear, euphoria and depression, the potential of collective action followed by an all- “Partisan Avenue” consuming sense of apathy and internal burnout — the protest experience is an emotional roller-coaster. “This is our city!” is one of the important slogans of the Sunday Rejuvenation and regeneration become possible in an extreme marches, meetings and walks taking place throughout the country. situation by documenting one’s personal experience using text, (jail) Unlike different forms of occupying space, marches have become one of drawings, slogans, and song, and then putting them out in the collective the main forms of protest and gather up to 500,000 participants. This space. This brings them back into the political field, which allows you to constant movement of protesting bodies fits organically with the find support, overcome trauma, and formulate an agenda to move on. architecture of Minsk and other large cities in the country — with their wide, cross-cutting avenues and their central squares. * Vika Biran. From Okrestina to Berghain: “I write, therefore I am.” Partisan Avenue, the location of the October 18 Partisan March, 2020 / Online: Makeout.by became one of the toponyms of the protests. Like Artur Klinau’s cultural partisanship project, it appropriated and redefined the partisan legacy of resistance that became a central mythologem of the official ideology. Mechanisms of Violence “Partisan Avenue” is a poetic metaphor that defines the political dimension of post-war cities that were rebuilt on ruins. Rapidly The level of violence by law enforcement during the protests in urbanized, without a historical center, but with constellations of Belarus is shocking. More than 7,000 people were arrested in the first residential neighborhoods, these cities have become productive spaces days alone (August 9–12), and many of them were subjected to for local self-organization and protest activity. This spatial element also aggression, violence and even torture. The fact that none of the refers to the utopian dimension of socialist planning: the never-ending protesters have been acquitted and none of the police have been street. charged is symbolic of the legal default in the country. Mass marches, Originally intended for official demonstrations, this year these solidarity chains and strikes were society’s response to the repression of avenues were filled with hundreds of thousands of people who oppose peaceful protesters and formed what researcher and philosopher the regime. Tatiana Shchitsova calls “a community of the shocked”* — where shock leads to the solidarity of society in the stand against the government’s abuse of power.

08 09 But police aggression against protesters didn’t appear suddenly; it through the organization of medical, legal, and financial assistance for was sewn into the body of society at the infrastructural, legal and political victims, creation of volunteer organizations, sharing and participatory levels. The monopoly on violence and its legitimization is the principal axis economics practices. of the Belarusian regime, and it exists on many levels: from the bureaucracy, education and military duty to the family. The patriarchal image of Lukashenka decodes these relationships into abuser and victim. The issue of domestic violence is important to understanding the (Im)possibility of Language Belarusian political context because it allows us to analyze the During the protests, language provides a symbolic battlefield relationship between private and political violence. against the authorities. Political language, formulated as a call or Trauma and post-traumatic syndrome is visible not only in those who demand, is most clearly manifested in slogans. came face-to-face with police brutality, or spent time in police stations Of fundamental importance, however, is the search for language and jails. Psychologists say that everyone in the country is traumatized itself — language that can grasp and redescribe the current situation: and collective therapy is needed. the new forms of relationships, solidarities, time, affects, and so forth. *Tatiana Shchitsova. For the Genealogy of the “Community of the Shocked”: People’s lives and energies oppose the ideological stereotypes and they Common Sense / Sensus Communis / Koine Aesthesis. 2020 / Online: Koine Community resort to radical and creative forms of expression. The existing language is insufficient and a new one is reconstructed in the form of political mottos, ironic slogans, poetic lines, and songs — that is, in those complex — collective and anonymous — forms that create gaps in Strength of “Weakness” everyday language and generate new meanings. A tragic anemia of language appears where violence and death The confrontation between government and society is not only social prevail. In other words, “revolutionary” language tries to capture the and political in nature, but also ontological. The rigid patriarchal and singular experience of an “event,” while also being a tool that changes authoritarian hierarchy of power is opposed by a fundamentally different reality. system of relationships — one that is self-organizing, leaderless, When direct political expression is impossible, creative formats such horizontal, and fragile. Protesters build a non-violent logic of resistance in as silent actions, walks, clapping demonstrations, ironic slogans, group response to government violence and repression. A “housewife” running singing, and courtyard decorating become abstract weapons of struggle. for president, solidarity chains of women, residential neighbourhood Poetics becomes politics. Poems, songs, music fill courtyards and streets, (dvory) meetings and dispersed resistance tactics, marches by as people’s voices resound in a polyphonic chorus. pensioners and people with (un)limited abilities utilize the emancipative and political potential of the strength of “weakness.” The optics of power don’t always perceive these tactics as a threat or the participants as serious opponents, which provides time and opportunity for mobilization, building solidarity and a different logic of functioning. At the same time, such fragile communities require longer, more intimate settings, which makes them potentially more vulnerable. That’s why “weak” tactics of resistance are coupled with the formation of infrastructures of care: support of the vulnerable bodies of protesters 10 11 Solidarity Networks formed that are distributed, mobile, massive and transparent. These infrastructures create a broad understanding of protest that goes In 2020, an “alienated society in the heart of Europe,”* as Olga beyond taking to the streets and involves online activity, efforts to stop Shparaga put it, began, unexpectedly for many, to self-organize — the economy, creating grassroots initiatives, neighborhood protest without a center, without leaders, without hierarchies. The key groups, care and support structures, civilian control over the judiciary metaphors for the power of the solidarity that united people in their and law enforcement, and so forth. desire for change were the chain — shoulder to shoulder with strangers, The essence of resistance is not to gather in one large column on and the network — the organizational structure of the platforms, some street or in a square, but to shimmer everywhere all at once. initiatives and movements capable of accumulating and transforming the energy of protest into social change. This self-organization of protest * Dzina Zhuk, Nicolay Spesivtsev. Solidarity Infrastructures. 2020 / Report for the World Without Labor biennale activity was expressed on all levels: social — replacing the dysfunctional healthcare system during COVID-19; political — helping political prisoners and victims of police and state violence, and so on. The network, a topographic figure without a center, characterized the nature of the connections: fragile, temporary, not always stable, but penetrating and all-encompassing. These networks were able to capture the collective energy that was expressed in the strong desire to help, involvement and civic engagement. The feeling of mutual support, sisterhood, neighborhood and camaraderie fueled the daily rhythm of the protests and kept them from subsiding.

* Olga Shparaga. Alienated Society in the Heart of Europe. 2010 / Online: Artaktivist

Shimmering Infrastructures

The use of technology is characteristic of all protest movements of the 21st century, but its variety in the Belarusian protests is impressive: hundreds of mutual assistance initiatives built around social networks, more than fifty projects that use complex IT solutions such as platform systems, AI, big data, blockchain, and hacking. Technology was embedded into the very fabric of the protests: torn from the logic of the market, the networked nature of IT merges with the networked logic of protest. As eeefff group puts it: “Political expediency determines the instrumentation.”* New protest infrastructures are

12 13 #damaudobnayavbytu Rufina Bazlova The History 2020–21. Machine-made cross-stitch embroidery. 45×735 cm (woman comfortable in everyday life) of Belarusian Instructions 2019–21. Series of 4 posters: digital print on paper. Vyzhyvanka 29,7×42 cm

A vyshyvanka is a traditional Embroidery was traditionally a Belarusian shirt with decorative embroidery. collective practice: women gathered Artist Rufina Bazlova fills this method of together to embroider and share stories. embroidery with political context: she literally Embroidery is a practice of solidarity, both embroiders the history of the Belarusian in terms of execution and from a formal protests, documenting and coding it without perspective. The red crosses on the fabric This project by the “A good belting could sometimes be useful using traditional written narrative. are a metaphor of networks, coexistence #damaudobnayavbytu group (woman for a kid.” Like a scale model of a patriarchal Embroidery was always on the and coupling. comfortable in everyday life) conceptualizes family, the state treats protesters like periphery in the hierarchy of the arts — the Finally, Rufina uses a play on words in the relationship between domestic naughty children — torturing, beating and way the women who created the designs the title of her work. In Belarusian, the words violence and government repression of even raping them in detention. were excluded from history and deprived of vyshyvats (“to embroider”) and vyzhyvats protesters. 75% of Belarusian women “Instructions” is a series of four their vote. For Rufina the use of embroidered (“to survive”) rhyme and differ by one letter. become victims of domestic violence and posters that provide statistics on various is not only a return to a traditional Belarusian “The History of Belarusian Vyzhyvanka” the absence of legislation in this area forms of violence: domestic violence, which craft but also the inclusion of those excluded underscores the unprecedented level of becomes a mechanism for normalizing, happens behind closed doors, and police or deprived of the right to vote. “Weak” state aggression against protesters. escalating and legitimizing state violence. violence, which is met with impunity. groups — women, pensioners, people with In 2018, Lukashenka criticized the draft law (un)limited abilities — play an important role on combatting domestic violence, saying, in the Belarusian protests. As it turns out, a majority of the population are excluded from the political sphere.

Rufina Bazlova (1990) — artist, lives and works in Prague. Gained an international profile for her series “The History of Belarusian Vyzhyvanka.” Author of the #damaudobnayavbytu is an activist art project that comic book Ženokol (Feminnature), in which she explores researches and analyzes gender inequality in the post- feminist themes in folk traditions. Studied stage Soviet space. The project was launched in 2018 in design at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and response to sexist comments made about female editors illustration and graphic design at the University of of major independent Belarusian media who had been West Bohemia. Co-founder of the theater group Sleď Pod

M echanisms of Violence detained. Strength of “Weakness”, Solidarity N etworks, Resistance T actics Kožichem (Herring Beneath the Fur Coat). 14 15 Bergamot Group Cultprotest.me + Antibrainwash.net Flight 2020. Action, video [3:55] 100 Posters 2011–21. Digital print on paper. Various sizes

During their summer 2020 residency This somatic practice also creates in a village near Brest, the Bergamot group a fragile bodily situation, a kind of staged an action that later became the choreography of support and solidarity basis for the video “Flight.” Four people where your colleagues’ hands don’t let you took turns carrying a fifth as if he or she fall: the way injured people are evacuated were flying, while the other participants from war zones or street clashes. This filmed in on their phone. The performance powerful image shows the tension between recreates a physical situation that occurred bodies and effects, experience and support, repeatedly during the protests in Belarus — strength and trust. Bergamot reinforces this Raman Aksionau, Tasha Arlova, Naprushkina, Nikolay Oleynikov & Anya riot police carrying protesters to police vans. image by moving it from the urban to the Anatoly Belov, Vika Biran & Olga Łaniewska, Kurbatova, Nick Osadchiy, Vasilisa Palianina, Detentions are often carried out by masked natural context, analyzing gestures and the Andrei Busel, Mitya Churikov, Lena Honest People, Dan Perjovschi, Karol officers in black, with no identification, who directions of our bodies, underscoring the Davidovich, Paul Dorokhin, Andrei Dureika, Radziszewski, Ania Redko, Daria Sazanovich, often record the events on their phone or politization of our joint movements. Dzmitry Dzmitryjeu, Zhanna Gladko, Konstantsin Selikhanov, Sergey Shabohin, camera. Mikhail Gulin, Uladzimir Hramovich, Studio Slavs and Tatars, Antonina Slobodchikova, Hutkasmachnaa, Nikita Kadan, Nikolay Anton Snt, Karolis Strautniekas, Masha Karabinovych, Aleksander Komarov, Svyatogor, Alexey Terexov, Jouri Toreev, Yuriy Ledyan, Ulia Liashkevich & Baba- Daria Trublina, Vladimir Tsesler, Maxim Zaba, Victoria Lomasko, Artyom Loskutov, Tyminko, Irina Varkulevich, Work Hard! Sergiy Maidukov, Victor Melamed, Vika Play Hard! Working group, Yaugen, Ilya Mitrichenko, Hanna Murajda, Marina Yerashevich, Oleg Yushko

Cultprotest.me is an online platform of visual resistance in Belarus. The website was launched in July 2020 by artists Maxim Tyminko and Sergey Shabohin. Cultprotest is an extension of the antibrainwash.net platform, which existed from 2011 to 2013. Like its predecessor, cultprotest is a self-published platform. Bergamot art group was founded in 1988 in Brest by Volha Anyone can download the protest materials created by Maslouskaya (1974, lives and works in Brest) and Raman Belarusian and international artists and designers Tratsiuk (1981, lives and works in Poznan). The group and print them, use them in street protests, stuff addresses the themes of communication, violence, gender them in mailboxes, hand them out on the streets, etc. and social roles. They work with performance, video, The cultprotest collection is constantly growing and

Protest Choreography, “Alive and Fragile”, M echanisms of Violence, Strength of “Weakness”, Solidarity N etworks photography and objects. Resistance T actics, Protest Choreography, “Future Perfect Continuous”, “Partisan Avenue”, “Alive and Fragile”, M echanisms of Violence, Strength “Weakness”, ( I m)possibility L anguage, Solidarity N etworks, Shimmering I nfrastructures currently has over 450 posters and leaflets. 16 17 Alena Davidovich Andrei Dureika Fight Like a Girl 2020. Wall painting: water-based paint and acrylic. Punctuation 2021. Wall painting: water-based paint. 500×3000 cm 450×550 cm

Alena Davidovich’s works borrow the for the women’s and feminist movement Andrei Dureika is an artist known for rhetoric so heightened the artist’s focus visual code of street art and apply it to the “Fight Like a Girl” — a phrase that reflects working with shapes and text, for whom on words that it resulted in a mishap of gallery. The artist combines textual and the strength of weakness. Combining the the conceptual understanding of context punctuation, numbness. “There are no visual messages to recreate a recognizable phrase “be like a girl,” meaning weak, and architecture are the basis for creating words…” Here p u n c t u a t i o n comes to aesthetic. Her site-specific works form a gentle and fragile, with the verb “fight” monumental art. the rescue. Text, transformed into a sign of single narrative that blurs the boundary creates a feminist message that defines the The current work is a variation of an abstract impulsive language of ecstasy, is between individual pieces and creates the new strategies of resistance and tactical asphalt drawing made on Novorossiyskaya comparable to the sound of pictorial speech. feeling of a continuous artistic expression. lines of struggle. The artist underscores Street in St. Petersburg in 2015 that was It is no coincidence that to convey this tragic “Fight Like a Girl” was created in 2020 the important role of weakness in the dedicated to Russia’s war against Ukraine, and traumatic experience the artist refers to for the exhibition Belarus. Art of Resistance Belarusian protests. As the artist herself and the fear of its continuation in Belarus. the prehistoric monochrome painting in the in Amsterdam. Stylistically, Alena’s works said, “The wall painting was made to draw It was initially an attempt by the artist to El Castillo cave as a form of undeciphered are both graffiti and protest posters. Many attention to a new creative approach in understand the situation by linguistically proto-language. But this isn’t a path of pure have become popular symbols of protest. non-violent resistance where the game decoding concepts and expressing it using abstraction. The element’s symbolisms, Like the artist’s artwork, protest posters changers were mostly women.”* words and texts. But paradoxical historical multiplied and repeated in space and time, often include drawings and designs in interpretations and aggressive revisionist act as a post-verbal signal. addition to words. * Alena Davidovich. From her The central element of Alena correspondence with the curators of the Davidovich’s work is the popular slogan exhibition “Every Day.” 2021

Alena Davidovich (1970) — artist, lives and works in Amsterdam. Graduated from the Gymnasium-College of Arts named after I.O. Akhremchik in 1988. Studied at the Andrei Dureika (1971) – artist and curator. Lives and Belarus State Academy of Arts in Minsk. Graduated from works in Dusseldorf. Graduated from the Minsk State the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2004. The Art College (1991) and Dusseldorf Art Academy (2004). artist’s works can be classified as site-specific art Archives and chronicles Belarusian actual art abroad. and often combine wall painting, video installation and Member of the expert council of the KALEKTAR / ZBOR

Resistance T actics, Strength of “Weakness”, Protest Choreography performance. ( I m)possibility of L anguage, “Alive and Fragile” research platform of Belarusian contemporary art. 18 19 eeefff Free Choir Outsourcing Paradise 2019–21. Video installation [20:18] surrounded by a wall Worthy Songs 2020. Video documentation of an action of water, code, office furniture. 250×500×500 cm

Workers of state cultural institutions “The Free Choir is a group of musicians joined the protests and strikes immediately who cannot stay silent, for whom song is “Outsourcing Paradise” is a the creation of structures and networks of after the announcement of the election a way of expressing their position,” the continuation of the study of outsourcing — mutual support take on important political results. The cast of the Janka Kupala National participants say. the hidden labor supporting many platforms meaning. Academic Theater gave performances in According to them, the choir was a and IT companies. eeefff creates a fictional During the protests, information front of the theater building. The Free Choir reaction to the political events in the country. space where these workers can talk about technologies (development of platform sang near the building of the Belarusian The Free Choir has two albums: their experience of alienation. The artists aggregators, open source code, bots, State Philharmonic in Minsk and in many Kaliadny (Christmas carols) and Hodnyja post questions about the possibility of maps, big data) become important tools other locations in the city. On August 13, Piesni (Worthy Songs), which includes “algorithmic solidarity” among the so-called in the fight against the power structures 2020, philharmonic workers went on strike. Belarusian patriotic songs and hymns. The “digital proletariat.” By focusing on the figure and the apparatus of violence. When They stood on the steps of the Concert Hall second album was dedicated to Raman of an outsourcer and “interface deformer,” technologies are removed from the market with posters saying “My vote was stolen.” Bandarenka and all the Belarusians who are on his or her “algorithmic production their emancipatory potential is returned, The Free Choir performed Belarusian songs fighting for their freedom. Some of the songs drama,” eeefff shifts the focus from the user connections and networks of solidarity are that have become popular during the in the album were banned at times and their to the operator. formed between those creating and using protests: Mury (Walls), Heta My (This is us), authors killed. The album contains works by The installation refers to office fun the IT solutions. Magutny Bozha (O Almighty God), Sciah 20th century composers Mikalai Ravensky zones at IT companies that blur the (Flag), Pahonya (Pursuit). and Uladzimir Terauski, and contemporary boundaries of work and free time. Displayed The video work was created with the The choir appears in random public composers Zmitser Vaitsyushkevich, at the exhibition is the recording of a screen support of the https://liquid-fiction.space/ places in Minsk — in underground passages Olga Podgaiskaya and Andrey Melnikaw. where websites and platform aggregators residence initiated by Frida Sandström; and subway cars, at the railway station, The Worthy Songs project is a revival of are “decomposed.” The video is surrounded Garage Museum of Contemporary Art; near the circus, in shopping centers, near Belarusian cultural traditions and the voice by a waterfall. In a situation of long-term Berliner Gazette as part of the exhibition the Holocaust victims memorial, and also of a new political reality. protests, where mood swings, fear, burnout SILENT WORKS — The Hidden Human Labor participates in self-organized neighborhood and fatigue are common, recreation and in AI-Driven Capitalism. concerts.

The Free Choir was organized in August 2020 in Minsk as a reaction to political events in the country. It eeefff is a collaboration of two people, Dzina Zhuk and included musicians from different choir groups. The Nicolay Spesivtsev. Active from 2013. Based in Minsk choir appears suddenly in random public places in and Moscow. eeefff works with emotional effects of the the city, sings songs that became popular during the new economic regimes. Methods: making public actions and Belarusian protests, and then disappears. They have situations, online interventions, framing environments released two albums: Kaliadny (Christmas Carols) and

“Future Perfect Continuous”, Shimmering I nfrastructures, Solidarity N etworks, “Alive and Fragile” and settings. Co-organizers of WORK HARD! PLAY HARD! Resistance T actics, Protest Choreography, “Partisan Avenue”, “Alive and Fragile” Hodnyja Piesni (Worthy Songs). 20 21 Zhanna Gladko Janna Grak On the Other Side FORCE FARCE FALSE. 2020. Object, dust on glass. Central and Reversed 2008. Installation: wood, metal, pigments, lacquer. 150×100 cm Perspective 1350×330×230 cm. 180 elements, each 46×46×7.7 cm On the Other Side. 2021. Set of 6 photographs, glass, print. Each one 40×40 cm This site-specific installation consists The other side creates a delusion of central FORCE FARCE FALSE. 2015–20. Video installation: of modules from the artist’s previous works. perspective. Thus, one and the same work strings [15:00] Janna Grak often creates her sculptures encompasses two different approaches to from same-type modules and uses them the problem of perspective at the same time. in different projects, creating a constructor By referring to the theme of central These works by artist Zhanna Gladko on a balcony overlooking Partisan Avenue set that she uses to assemble her spatial and reverse perspective, the artist places are from the project “Inciting Force.” in Minsk, which became one of the main compositions. the viewer in the simultaneous presence of The series started out as an analysis of locations of the protests. The video shows The spectator can go through opposing models of vision. One of them is the artist’s difficult relationship with her police vans and protesters moving along both spaces and see the work from absolutely monochrome and black, the other father but expanded with time, both in the street on different days, the Sunday different viewpoints. From one side the is bright and colorful. This work in many terms of media and themes: the main marches, and the column of demonstrators work represents the concept of reverse ways reflects the current state of people focus is on mechanisms and relationships during the Partisan March on October 18. perspective, meaning that the vanishing in Belarus, who see different prospects in between power and authority in society, The inscription “FORCE FARCE FALSE” is a point is placed as if inside the viewer, making society and are experiencing sharp mood

gender issues, culture and interpersonal reference to a time of slogans, manifestos, ( I m)possibility of L anguage, Shimmering I nfrastructures him or her the starting point of the work. swings. relationships. instability, doubts, fears and hopes, a time of The installation “On the Other Side” anger and inspiration looming in the air. Capture of Space 2020. Installation: wood, ceramics, string. consists of a set of self-portraits in which The artist says that this slogan is “a 900×500×500 cm the artist recreates gestures borrowed from symbolic dedication to a turning point in the protest choreography while standing in front post-truth era when the flow of information is “Capture of Space” is an abstract to the optical illusion of movement in space. of the sea. characterized by the layering, displacement sculptural wall composition made of The constantly changing, pulsating optics of The three-channel video shows the and devaluation of meanings.” ceramic and wooden objects connected by linear structures is commensurate with life. artist’s father destroying her piano (2015), string. The work addresses the dynamics of As the artist put it, “Sculpture has a right to her performance with strings from this * Zhanna Gladko. expansion, a network evolving in space. The move.”* piano (2016), and a piece of glass with the From her correspondence with the curators image of a network refers to the method and slogan “FORCE FARCE FALSE.” The slogan of the exhibition “Every Day.” 2021 nature of organizing social and technological * Quote from was created on glass using dust that Zhanna networks, which play a key role in the current http://zbor.kalektar.org/10/ collected over a long period of time in her events in the country. Working with colors parents’ apartment. The glass was kept and objects, the artist pays special attention Janna Grak (1971) — sculptor, lives and works in Zhanna Gladko (1984) — artist, lives and works in Minsk. Dusseldorf. Member of the art group Revision. Graduated Studied at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts in Minsk from the Belarusian State Academy of Arts in Minsk (2003–2009). Has been actively working in the field (1998), Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Arts in Amsterdam of contemporary art since 2010. Main series of works — (2000), Dusseldorf Arts Academy (2006). Creates “Inciting Force” — tells an autobiographical story. The sculptures, videos, interactive objects and site- artist works with family archives, videos, photography specific installations based on the optical illusion of ( I m)possibility of L anguage, Solidarity N etworks, Protest Choreography Partisan Avenue, “Alive and Fragile”, Strength of “Weakness”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage and objects. geometric shapes. 22 23 Mikhail Gulin Uladzimir Hramovich in Personal Monument October 9, 2012. Action performed on Independence Avenue and squares in Minsk: photo and video collaboration with Genadziy Grak documentation including performance directed by Valentina Moroz; changeable interactive object: wood, Weak Horizon 2021. Plywood, glass, oracal. 300×1000 cm acrylic, lacquer. Three elements 40×40×40 cm and one 40×40×120 cm Uladzimir Hramovich sees materials inside of which is a frieze or “horizon” of Mikhail Gulin’s actions in the urban along the avenue and built temporary such as concrete, granite, metal, paper narratives about the 30th anniversary of space are always poignant. His playful style sculptural variations from the blocks in the and paint not just as surfaces that history Belarusian independence (1991–2021). and use of ironic interactive elements are main city squares. But the “game” ended leaves its imprint on but as agents that The “horizon” of images refers to different particularly conducive to social contact. The on October Square when he was arrested themselves deform history. In his artistic ideological counterpoints of the modern action “Personal Monument” during the and beaten by riot police and his work was practice, Hramovich draws on the history of Belarusian state and its architectural Minsk festival Going Public. On Difficulties confiscated. Despite being acquitted in modernist art and architecture, the history embodiment (National Library (2006), new of Public Expression seemed to contain court, the artist lost his teaching position at of ideology and political movements, and the building of the Belarusian Great Patriotic but the slightest hint of provocation. the university. Exposing a number of social transformation of the urban space in Minsk. War Museum (2014), etc.), as well as the Nonetheless, it became an iconic work of and cultural conflicts, the action presented He is interested in the tension between history of destruction and construction the decade, anticipating today’s protest an accurate picture of the repressive the past and the present and studies sandwiched between nostalgia for the Soviet tactic of “walking.” The artist created the reality in modern Belarus, where even monuments and rituals of memory that are past and the capitalist present. The work changing sculpture using the most basic a geometric abstraction in public space overloaded with ideological meanings and was created in collaboration with Genadziy geometric elements: three pink cubes and becomes a political statement. embodied in material objects. Grak, a Belarusian graphic artist of the older

Resistance T actics, Protest Choreography, “Partisan Avenue”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage one yellow rectangular block. He walked The work “Weak Horizon” is a model of generation. The artists present a kind of a modernist façade based on the destroyed monument to the weak horizon of history. IMMORTAL 2020. Changeable object: wood, plastic, acrylic, LEDs. VDHKh expo center (1968–2017) in Minsk, 10 elements 100×100×40 cm Uladzimir Hramovich (1989) — artist, lives and works The artist created the installation repression, he finds the religious aspect, in Minsk. Graduated from the Gymnasium-College of “IMMORTAL” for the Kyiv exhibition and the concept of an afterlife and punishment Arts named after I.O. Akhremchik in Minsk (2009) and borrowed the title from the famous slogan after death, particularly important. The the graphics arts department of the Belarusian State “The People’s Deeds are Immortal” that’s artist deliberately brings together Soviet Academy of Arts in Minsk (2015). Member of the Problem on top of the buildings in Victory Square and Orthodox iconography expressed in Collective since 2016. Works with installations, in Minsk. The artist says that in the given the image of hellfire. graphics and video. Explores themes of history and political realities of lawlessness and memory.

Mikhail Gulin (1977) — artist and curator. Lives Genadziy Grak (1937) — graphic artist and book and works in Minsk. Graduated from the department illustrator. Graduated from the Minsk State Art College of monumental and decorative art of the Belarusian (1961) and Belarusian State Theater and Art Institute State Academy of Arts (2004). Does projects together (1976). Has been participating in art exhibitions since with Antanina Slabodchykava as a member of the art 1967. His works can be found in the Museum of Modern group 1+1=1. Primary media: painting, performance and Fine Art in Minsk as well as in private collections in “Partisan Avenue”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage installation. Protest Choreography, “Future Perfect Continuous”, “Partisan Avenue” Belarus and abroad. 24 25 Bоris Iwanow Sergey Kiryuschenko Red Shore Skull. 2019. Graphite on paper. 155×122 cm Bilboquet 2020. Diptych: acrylic on canvas. 200×240, 280×240 cm Red Shore. 2019. Graphite on paper. 130×310 cm Portrait of Maxim’s Grandfather. 2019. Graphite on paper. 155×122 cm Sergey Kiryuschenko‘s works have his practice, Kiryuschenko has long turned Portrait of Katya’s Grandmother. 2019. been gathering attention for well over four to the grid — the emblem of modernism in Graphite on paper. 155×122 cm decades now while the artist himself has the fight against reactionary. According to Portrait of Kaji’s Neighbor. 2019. been adjusting the direction his practice Rosalind Krauss, it is the grid that declares Graphite on paper. 155×122 cm takes every five to seven years. Although he the art space to be autonomous, closed sees himself as a painter, he, nonetheless, and self-sufficient. It follows that the constantly keeps turning to other media. autonomy of art gives artistic practice a The “Red Shore” project, part of which is tombstones highlight the fragility of life. He In the diptych “Bilboquet,” the artist certain independence, where politics is not displayed at the exhibition, is a retrospection transfers the portraits from the tombstones hints at the playful nature of the painting, professionally competent, which means that of the Belarusian village. Working with the with archaeological precision and later where, in pursuit of an object, the viewer finds its power is not absolute. past and delving into the history of the enlarges them into large graphite drawings themselves in a multidimensional reality, “collective farm project,” in his series of on paper, which preserve the lightness leaving only pointed traces of movement. In

drawings Iwanow speaks paradoxically and reflection of light, despite the author’s “Partisan Avenue”, M echanisms of Violence, ( I m)possibility of L anguage about the present and the future of gloomy poetry. “November. Drizzle. I peer disappearing village culture. His realistic into time and gradually in my subconscious Black Structures BS-101. 2018. Pigment on canvas. 160×240 cm drawings are melancholic, naive and ironic. the shores of this fantastic country called BS-102. 2018. Pigment on canvas. 160×240 cm The people, objects and fragments of ruins ‘RED SHORE’ appear. ‘THE DEPARTED’ rise BS-103. 2018. Pigment on canvas. 160×240 cm are a reference to the Soviet utopia of from their graves and ask: ‘WHY?’ There is BS-104. 2018. Pigment on canvas. 160×240 cm collectiveness. More than a decade ago, no answer ……. There are only drawings on Boris moved from the city to the village of paper made with a simple pencil, gray like The abstract sometimes more conveys the sharp contrast of emotion. Vurada in the Lyepyel region, where the Red the dullness of our existence.”* accurately conveys the state we are in, The author tries to overcome the dominant Shore collective farm once existed. The artist especially in times of heightened tension totality, whether through multiplication and studies its traces and begins his research * Воris Iwanow. From his and strong, ongoing conflict. In its title, the variability, sharp dizzying turns of direction, of collective farm civilization at the village correspondence with the curators of the series “Black Structures,” which consists of opposing fullness and emptiness, and even cemetery. The crumbling photographs on the exhibition “Every Day.” 2021 four works, places the viewer in a field of a decisive line across the grid — all for the collision, and not only in purely a pictorial sake of a victorious white stroke of lightning. and figurative space. The choice of palette, reinforced by the strict composition,

Boris Iwanow (1952) — artist, lives and works in the Sergey Kiryuschenko (1951) — artist, born in Chita village of Zaozernaya, Lepiel District, Vitebsk Oblast. (Russia), lives in Minsk. Studied at the Belarusian Graduated from the Minsk State Art College (1970) and Polytechnic Institute (1969) and the Belarusian State the Belarusian State Academy of Arts (1993). In his Theater and Art Institute (1972–77). Member of the current projects he focuses on the history of the Belarusian Union of Artists. Member of the Nemiga-17 Belarusian countryside. Works with photography, drawing group (1988–2002). Co-founded the research platform of “Future Perfect Continuous”, “Alive and Fragile” and painting. “Partisan Avenue”, M echanisms of Violence, ( I m)possibility of L anguage Belarusian contemporary art KALEKTAR in 2014. 26 27 Aleksander Komarov Zakhar Kudin Palipaduazennije 2012/21. Three-channel video installation: metal, wood, Open Canvas ZhES-Art #1. 2017. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 289×190 cm cardboard. 700×700×400 cm. Video [20:00] (ZhES-Art) ZhES-Art #2. 2017. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 290×190 cm ZhES-Art #3. 2017. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 290×190 cm ZhES-Art #4. 2017. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 290×190 cm ZhES-Art #5. 2017. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 290×190 cm ZhES-Art #6. 2017. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 276×185 cm Courtesy of the family collection of Natalia Coudine and Tanya Kudin In his artistic practice, Aleksander Palipaduazennije, pavierbadzhennije, Cleanliness and order are the first New Art) art group in Vitebsk — which the Komarov researches social identity, pipludzhannije, pasifloraszina, prezennije — things tourists notice in Belarus. But the Soviet system censored throughout the 20th the hybridity of language, and different these are some of the words from this stereotypical comment “it’s so clean here” is century. By appropriating images, the artist forms of ownership. The installation invented language or slang. Identity, rarely followed by how the locals would say realizes Malevich’s dream of a synthesis “Palipaduazennije” is part of the “Language boundaries and transit, migration and post- it: “like a military barrack.” While working of Suprematist painting and architecture. Lessons” series, which includes video socialism are key issues in this project. on the project, Zakhar Kudin copied onto Zakhar himself called this multi-layered interviews with three Minsk musicians, a Komarov refers to the tricky status of the canvases “works of ZhES-art” — geometric contextual phenomenon “abstract realism.” dictionary, and a vinyl record. The series Belarusian language in the cultural policy graffiti created by the municipal services This project by abstract artist Zakhar is dedicated to the issue of language in of the Belarusian state, its fragility and workers who paint over protest slogans and Kudin was the subject of the documentary modern Belarusian culture. The video disappearance, but also to resistance, drawings. Also known in Belarusian art as film “Pure Art” (2019) by Maksim Shved. installation uses footage shot by Komarov survival and “germination.” The artist shows “fuprematism” (fundamental suprematism), Zakhar’s personal exhibition “Open in the botanical garden in Amsterdam. He how language can be perceived not only as a it has long been a symbol of censorship. Canvas” opened at the OK16 cultural hub invited Belarusians living in the Netherlands hierarchical structure that accumulates and Thus, the artist appropriated temporary in Minsk in 2017. Zakhar Kudin died in late to create an imaginary language that sounds reproduces power but as a shared feature artifacts and translated them into the field 2019 while the film “Pure Art” was being like Belarusian. Together they made a small that is produced, changed and developed of art. The artist emphasizes the irony of the shown in cinemas. In 2020, the authorities dictionary where random Belarusian words through exchange and communication. situation: while fighting political statements, closed down OK16, which was owned by were fused with the Latin names of plants in the authorities involuntarily create objects Belgazprombank. The bank’s former director the garden where the filming took place. that refer to modernism and avant-garde — and would-be presidential candidate Viktar like the works of the UNOVIS (Utverditeli Babaryka is still in prison. Novogo Iskusstva or The Champions of the

Aleksander Komarov (1971) — artist, lives and works in Zakhar Kudin (1986–2019) — painter and sculptor. Lived Berlin. His projects are dedicated to the issues of in Minsk and New York. Graduated from the Minsk State migration, identity, globalization and the state of Art College (2007). Defined his work as “neuro-art.” In contemporary art in its economic context. Komarov is co- recent years he worked with digital art and made several founder of the AIR Berlin Alexanderplatz residency. He monumental projects. His works are in the National Art has been lecturing at New York University Berlin since Museum of the Republic of Belarus and in collections in

( I m)possibility of L anguage, “Future Perfect Continuous”, Solidarity N etworkst 2018. “Future Perfect Continuous”, “Partisan Avenue”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage Europe, Asia and the USA. 28 29 Alexei Kuzmich Lipovy Tsvet Group I Believe, or The August 9, 2020. Action in two parts. Commotion in Bus №23 November 19, 2011. Video [7:21] Philistine World Video documentation [2:50] of Political Animals Even though the Lipovy Tsvet group In November 2011, the group carried was only around for two years, their activist out its action “Commotion in Bus №23.” In the practices were a reaction to the political video, Denis Limonov eggs on passengers to crisis in the country. They managed to discuss the political situation in the country. expose the diseases of Belarusian society He creates a tense atmosphere in the thick and show that fear and violence are hiding of everyday life, urging Belarusians not On August 9, 2020, the day of the tense nights, putting himself at great risk. behind the apparent stability — the central to be afraid. The seven-minute video of presidential election in Belarus, Minsk Though judging from the video, he managed ideology of the Lukashenka regime. the confrontation between the artist and performance artist Alexei Kuzmich held to inspire the protesters. The artist was later Lipovy Tsvet was founded in Mogilev passengers was posted on the website a political artistic action in two parts. In arrested, but survived jail thanks to the help by Denis Limonov and Yuliy Ilyushchenko. naviny.by and quickly got thousands of the first part, the artist came to his polling of hospital doctors. He fled Belarus and now It was there that they filmed the emotional views. station during the day, registered, took a moves between different cities of Europe: video-premonition “Carousel,” in which The group’s works were displayed ballot, and entered the voting booth. In red Budva, Paris and Berlin. Denis Limonov spends time in an apartment only once in Belarusian institutions: during marker he drew a phallus on the ballot and The artist contrasts his hypermasculine and public space, worrying and exposing the the closed-door roundtable “Art and stigmata on his palms. He took off his shoes, body with the institutions of power and unhealthy chaotic atmosphere of the city Government Pressure: The Belarusian stripped down to a loincloth, stuck the ballot culture. The heroization of the artist and the country. Later the group moved to Version” (moderated by Alexander to his bare chest, blindfolded himself with performer is achieved not only through Minsk and two new members joined: Katya Kolesnikov) at Ў Gallery on January 8, 2012. the official flag of the Republic of Belarus, masculine rhetoric but also through the Samigulina and Ira Trubina. Interestingly, The format of this event caused a conflict walked to the center of the polling station, figure of a martyr, which refers directly to all four members of the group never within the group that ultimately resulted in and stood there for 20 seconds in a pose Christian canon. This is very important for participated in an action together, which also its breakup. symbolizing the crucifixion of Christ. Then he Alexei, whose father is a Belarusian artist reflects the complexity, sporadic nature and picked up his things and left. known for his paintings depicting Madonna. safety of actionist practice in conditions of During the second part of the action — Video documentation of the action is lack of freedom. at night — the artist stood briefly in the same accompanied by two texts written by the

image and posed in the city center between artist. Resistance T actics, “Alive and Fragile”, M echanisms of Violence, ( I m)possibility of L anguage protesters and police. Alexei Kuzmich carried out his action during one of the most Carousel 2010–11. Video [38:53]

Alexei Kuzmich (1987) — artist and performance artist. Studies social and political context, transforming it Lipovy Tsvet group (2010–2012) — art group from Mogilev into material for his art. Was forced to emigrate from that was active in 2010–2012. Members: Denis Limonov Belarus due to political persecution by the authorities (1983), Yuliy Ilyushchenko (1985), Ekaterina Samigulina after his performance on the day of the presidential (1989), Irina Turbina (1987). The group’s activities election in Belarus in 2020 and now lives in different coincided with an upsurge of civic activism in Belarus Resistance T actics, Protest Choreography, M echanisms of Violence cities of Europe. “Alive and Fragile”, M echanisms of Violence and is a prime example of politically oriented art. 30 31 Alexey Lunev Angelina Mass Island Tameness Landscape. 2020. Graphite and acrylic on paper. I’m Belarus The Grail of Our Memory. 2020. 104×140.5 cm and I Won’t Give Up Watercolor, acrylic, pastel on paper. 70×100 cm Landscape. 2020. Graphite and acrylic on paper. I’m Belarus and I Won’t Give Up. 2020. 104×140.5 cm Watercolor, acrylic, pastel on paper. 70×100 cm Écorché. Thing! 2021. Graphite and acrylic on paper. Freedom is Behind Faith and Courage. 2020. 105×150 cm Watercolor, acrylic, pastel on paper. 70×100 cm Écorché. Thing! 2021. Graphite and acrylic on paper. Broken Mirrors Full of Promises. 2021. 105×150 cm Watercolor, acrylic, pastel on paper. 70×100 cm Landscape. 2020. Graphite and acrylic on paper. Mother of Tears. 2021. 104×140.5 cm Watercolor, acrylic, pastel on paper. 70×100 cm Écorché. Thing! 2021. Graphite and acrylic on paper. Fear Sits in a Deep Hole. 2021. 105×150 cm Watercolor, acrylic, pastel on paper. 70×100 cm Sham. 2021. Alexey Lunev’s graphic work “There is Williams play “Boom” — the story of a female Watercolor, acrylic, pastel on paper. 70×100 cm Nothing” (2009), which declared the horizon philanthropist and misanthrope who meets of global absence or ideal zero, became an her death on a paradise island. Elizabeth Artist Angelina Mass creates self- The images displayed depict a grail iconic work in Belarus. Ten years later, in Taylor’s remark “Pain! Injection!” in this work portraits reflecting her experiences that collects tears in order to not forget 2019, the artist made “Écorché. Thing!” as is almost a direct quote. The second is the associated with the dramatic events taking everything seen and experienced; a militant an antonym to “There is Nothing.” These two association of Belarus with an island and the place in Belarus. She was a direct participant pose on a stork — an unofficial symbol of works complete a coordinate system and the concept of “island tameness,” which gives in the protests and is now observing and Belarus; and a flaming heart, wounded by artist proposes examining everything that the work its name and refers to the reduced commenting on what’s happening from the inhuman actions of the security forces he’s made in the space of these works. wariness among animals living for a long Berlin, expressing an active civic position. it witnessed. In the series of queer self- Alexey Lunev works with the themes time on an isolated island with no predators. The graphic self-portraits created during portraits, Angelina addresses issues of of time and repetition, reproducing his Alexey Lunev arranged the graphic sheets this period reflect the artist’s wide range sexuality and migration, physicality and works and creating them using a time and in a tautological sequence, covered them of feelings: from tears and excitement to a pain, desire and depression. Her works labor intensive technique. The exhibition with a reflective glass surface, and placed determination to fight, from hatred of the refer to (post) punk subcultures and queer features two sheets, each of which is them at an angle to the floor so as to create aggressors to belief in victory. aesthetics, reworking and exaggerating the reproduced three times. The artist had an unstable installation that repeats and affectivity and narcissism of social media two reasons for creating “Landscape.” The flickers, eluding the viewer’s attention. and digital platforms. first was the film based on the Tennessee

Alexey Lunev (1971) — artist, curator, member of the expert council of ZBOR. Studied at the Minsk State Art Angelina Mass (1995) — artist, lives and works in College named after A. K Glebov (1989–1991). In his Berlin. Graduated from the Gymnasium-College of Arts works refers to the fluidity and experience of time. named after I.O. Akhremchik in 2013. Currently studying Explores this phenomenon through multiplication. Lives in the intermedia department at the Academy of Fine Arts ( I m)possibility of L anguage and works in Navapolatsk. “Alive and Fragile”, Strength of “Weakness” in Poznan. Author of the musical project “Scum Angel.” 32 33 Vika Mitrichenko Marina Naprushkina Amusing Pictures 2021. Ceramic tiles with overglaze drawings. 180×300 cm Platform 2007/21. Acrylic and varnish on wood. 300×700×200 cm

“Platform” might be mistaken for a imaginary basis for dialogue and freedom of In her work “Amusing Pictures,” from contemporary and classical works, and minimalist sculpture, but is actually a copy of speech, whilst at the same time this freedom Mitrichenko describes her experience in fastening them with notes from her diaries, the platform used by the present government of speech is stifled in most ‘democratic’ Belarus. This is a picture diary, a report on the artist turns reflections about censorship of Belarus. For important events the platform societies. The stage also makes reference to one day in the life of the artist. But at the in art, professional activity and political is set up, as a propagandistic instrument the exhibition as a space where subjects that same time it is also a record of the emotions crises into fascinating comics. to glorify the President statesmanship and are otherwise suppressed can be discussed felt when experiencing from a distance The use of ceramic tiles emphasizes divert attention from politics. The absurdity and reflected upon in a way that is beyond events that cannot be influenced. the connection between the private and the of this solitary red pedestal reflects on the real politics.

At first glance, Vika Mitrichenko’s works political, the personal and the social. The tile “Partisan Avenue”, Protest Choreography, ( I m)possibility of L anguage excessive use of the term ‘platform’ as an are very individual, full of personal mythology simultaneously refers to both the home and and family stories. But on closer inspection to public spaces. you can see that these are deep, universal Through helplessness, but at the same I Want a Woman 2020. Acrylic on canvas. 180×220 cm issues. By talking about complex issues and time an understanding of the irreversibility President avoiding generalizations, Vika allows the of retribution against executioners and viewer to become part of the story. According rapists, at the end it suddenly becomes to the artist, “Cultural heritage, the history of clear that “Wrapped in carpets, we’ll be The canvas begins with the words “I art, big social turbulences, global political victorious.”** And this gives hope. want a woman president” and is an homage and cultural shifts, they are just patchworks to the poem by American artist Zoe Leonard sewed together from a huge number of small * Vika Mitrichenko. From the artist’s “I Want a President,” 1992. Naprushkina peculiar stories, little insignificant events, statement. — vikamitrichenko.com/cv articulates the politics presented by family tales and personal anecdotes.”* In ** Vika Mitrichenko. From the work people with “other” experiences, ones that sewing this blanket out of visual quotes “Amusing Pictures.” 2021 professional politicians don’t have. In doing so she criticizes the patriarchal status quo in Belarus and searches for an alternative language of political expression.

Vika Mitrichenko (1972) — artist, lives and works Marina Naprushkina (1981) — artist, lives and works in Amsterdam. Graduated from the Belarusian State in Berlin. Founder of the Office for Anti-Propaganda Academy of Arts (1995), Gerrit Rietveld Academy (2004) platform, New Neighborhood / Moabit initiatives. Her and Rijksakademie (2007) in Amsterdam. Works with work is aimed at creating structures based on self- installations, graphics and sculpture. Exhibited at organization. Participant of international exhibitions Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, MAD Museum NY, Kunstmuseum and biennials: 11th Istanbul Biennale, 7th Berlin Den Haag, Musee des Arts Decoratifs Paris, Museum Biennale, Kyiv Biennale, and others. Author of books Resistance T actics, ( I m)possibility of L anguage, “Alive and Fragile”, “Strength of Weakness”, Solidarity N etworks “Alive and Fragile”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage, Strength of “Weakness” Morsbroich, Leverkusen. and texts. 34 35 Ulyana Nevzorova Materials for Newspapers “Belarusian Selfgovernment”. 2011–13 This Poster October 22, 2020. Happening, video [0:56]* the Office for Coloring book “My Dad is a Policeman, What He Does at Could Be The Reason Anti-Propaganda Work”. 2011 For My Detention Notebooks. 2020–21 Printed materials in display cases: digital and offset print, felt-tip pen on paper. 2010–20 Artist Ulyana Nevzorova has been Offenses: violation of the procedures for active in the streets of Minsk since the organizing and holding mass events, which start of the protests in August 2020. Her is punishable with a fine or imprisonment of In 2007 Naprushkina founded the works, often anonymous – performances, up to 15 days. Absurd, dramatic situations Office for Anti Propaganda. It concentrates posters, murals — comment creatively on like this happen all the time. For example, on power structures in nation-states, often the political situation in the country. One in 2018, LGBTQ+ activist Vika Biran was making use of nonfiction material such of her interventions on October 22, 2020 charged with an administrative offense as propaganda issued by governmental became very popular on social media. She for holding a mass event when she took a institutions. Started as an archive on political held up a poster in a subway car that said photograph with the poster “You are a fake” propaganda the “Office” drifted to a political “This Poster Could Be The Reason For My (it was considered a one-person protest) in platform. In cooperation with activists and Detention.” This brief gesture instantly front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and cultural makers, Office for Anti Propaganda politicized the public space and provoked KGB. Ulyana Nevzorova’s gesture and video Resistance T actics, “Alive and Fragile”, Solidarity N etworks launches and supports political campaigns, reactions by passengers: one woman tried capture the importance of physical presence social projects, publishes underground to restrain the artist, while a guy, in a show as an extension of political space. The artist newspapers. For the exhibition Naprushkina of solidarity with the artist, unfurled a white- was not detained, but the words on the presents a selection of newspapers, posters red-white flag behind her back. The brief poster and the poster itself were entered and exercise books. and simple gesture showed the difficulties into the investigation report before they of self-expression in public space and the arrested Ulyana’s sister, Maria Kalenik — an critical situation with freedom of speech in activist and student of the Belarusian State Belarus. According to the current legislation, Academy of Arts. even a one-person protest falls under Article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative * Operator: Polina Nevzorova

Ulyana Nevzorova (2001) — artist and activist. Lives and works in Minsk. Graduated from the Gymnasium-College of Arts named after I.O. Akhremchik and the Liberal Arts College in Belarus. Participant of the Belarusian Human Rights School program. Currently all her activities are related to human rights violations in Belarus. Works

Resistance T actics, ( I m)possibility of L anguage, Protest Choreography, “Alive and Fragile” with graphics, photos and videos, street interventions. 36 37 Uladzimir Pazniak Lesia Pcholka Politics of Fear Eat the Rich People. 2016. Bread crumbs. The Art 2020–21. Installation. 240×700×40 cm. Photographs from Size of one letter: 8×6.5×1 cm of the Regime the action “The Art of the Regime”: digital print, Temporary Lenin Mausoleum. 2016. Wax on wood. banner fabric, wood 21×44×34 cm Model of an АК-47. 2016. Plastic. 12 cm Chocolate Soldiers. 2016. Chocolate. Size of one soldier: 15 cm On August 15, 2020, cultural workers the action “Don’t Paint — Strike!” to protest Bones. 2016. Wax. Size of one bone: 15 cm of Belarus held the action “The Art of the against the results of the elections and to Regime” where they formed a chain of express solidarity with the strikes sweeping solidarity by the Palace of Arts and held up the country. Uladzimir Pazniak creates sculptures, the Polish context in 2016, and this time into photos of protesters who had been beaten Lesia Pcholka, like many other artists, objects, drawings, performances and videos. the Ukrainian context in 2021. by the police on August 9–12. Artist Artem has changed the focus of her practice: His politically engaged statements borrow In this project the artist explores Pronin undressed to show the bruises and in the tense situation photography and from Soviet and post-Soviet history, as corporeality, mortality and immortality, wounds on his body. After the action, the documentation of events are becoming well as leftist political thought. Five works eternity and temporality (“Bones” and participants stuck the photographs on the important acts of resistance. The Belarusian from his 2016 series “The Politics of Fear” “Temporary Lenin Mausoleum”). To create billboard of Art-Belarus Gallery, whose authorities are stripping journalists working are presented at the exhibition. The series an image of the ephemeral, the artist collection had been seized even before for foreign media of their accreditations and exposes signs and traces of the Soviet makes his sculptures out of pointedly cheap the elections. One of paintings from the prohibiting them from covering the events in political and military past: a reconstruction materials such as wood, wax, chocolate and collection, Chaim Soutine’s “Eva” (1928), has the country. Social networks are becoming a of the first wooden “Temporary Lenin bread. For example, the artist created the become one of the symbols of the Belarusian new outlet for protest. Mausoleum”; a small souvenir replica of sign “Eat The Rich People” using “prison protests. Echoing the action, documentary an AK-47 assault rifle; a cast of a chocolate clay” — chewed up bread. The Chinese- The cultural workers used the action photographs are presented in an installation soldier from the operetta The Chocolate made model of a Kalashnikov and gadgets to publicly express their disagreement in the form of a solidarity chain aimed at Soldier based on George Bernard Shaw’s are a criticism of the market, consumerism with the current regime and to demand an drawing attention to the violence in the play Arms and the Man. The artist and fetishism. This collection of objects end to police violence. This wasn’t the only country and the legal default that continues deliberately provokes the situation by is a reference to political fears, anxiety, act of collective resistance by the artistic in Belarus to this day. transferring images from Soviet history into conspiracy and populist discourses. community: two days before, artists held

Uladzimir Pazniak (1985) — artist and teacher. Lives Lesia Pcholka (1989) — artist, lives and works in and works in Szczecin. Graduated from the art department Minsk. In her artistic and research practice works with of the State University of Grodno. Received a master’s the themes of memory and everyday life. Leader of the degree in painting and new media from the Academy of Art VEHA sociocultural initiative. Teaches at the European in Szczecin (2016). In his artistic practice he uses College for Liberal Arts in Belarus. Was detained on

“Future Perfect Continuous”, “Partisan Avenue”, M echanisms of Violence media such as sculpture, drawing, performance and video. Protest Choreography, “Alive and Fragile”, M echanisms of Violence, Solidarity N etworks January 23, 2021 for participating in a picket. 38 39 Photography as Document

“Press under pressure” is the name of Nasha Niva weekly, of two girls kissing in the website created to document evidence front of a wall of riot police. of repressions against independent media Photojournalism also plays an and journalists in Belarus. As a journalist, important role in documenting police writing about the protests, filming them violence and repression against protesters. or streaming from them means putting Photographer and artist Alexander yourself in danger of being detained or Vasukovich, who works with the topic of even sentenced for a crime. More than 400 domestic and political violence, documents journalists were detained in the six months of police aggression. the protests. Many of them became involved Even with the fear and threat of being in criminal cases or served an administrative detained, photographers manage to capture Yauhen Attsetski (1983) – photographer and civic sentence, many suffered violence at the long-term changes. Yauhen Attsetski journalist. Based in Minsk. Works mainly with hands of the police. Among the injured chronicles the transformation of the Square documentary photography. Co-founder of the fsh1 journalists were many photojournalists who of Changes — a protest courtyard that has school of photography (Minsk). Organizers of the 2o2o were subjected to repression and beaten become a self-organized alternative public photography festival. Has worked with the UNDP, UNICEF, for doing their job, despite wearing a bright space. It was here that Raman Bandarenka Red Cross. PRESS vest. was killed. Documentary photography is present The series “Black & White. Live. Nadia Buzhan (1991) — photojournalist. Worked for at the exhibition not only as a visual material Reportage photo from 90s” by photographer Zviazda and TUT.BY. Presently works for Nasha Niva/ that captures different aspects of protest Sergey Kozhemyakin refers to events from NN.BY, the oldest Belarusian newspaper. Took part in activity at the micro and macro levels, thirty years ago — the protest movements, group exhibitions at Aff Galerie (Berlin, 2016), CECH public and personal moments, massive and meetings and marches in Belarus in the (Minsk, 2014), Belarus Press Photo (Minsk, 2015), TUT.BY almost invisible events — the presence of 1990s. The social choreography of protest gallery (Minsk, 2019). Her projects address the themes photojournalism in the exhibition is also a in these photos resonates with the present, of freedom and religion. gesture of solidarity and support with the the past becomes the present and rushes media. off into the future. In a global sense, the Alexander Vasukovich (1985) — independent photographer, The exhibition features a series of slogan “Every Day!” is not only about the based in Minsk. Won the Grand Prix and multimedia award photographs by Nadia Buzhan, Alexander temporality of the Belarusian protests in at the Belarus Press Photo contest 2012 and Grand Prix Vasukovich and Yauhen Attsetski. They were 2020-2021, it is also an indication that the at PRAFOTA 2015 for his project about domestic violence all detained at different times of the protests; struggle for one’s rights is not over. in Belarus. He works mostly on topics of human rights Alexander Vasukovich was sentenced to 11 and social injustice. days of administrative arrest. Despite this, each of them continues Sergey Kozhemyakin (1956) — photographer, teacher of the to document what is happening. history of photography. Lives and works in Minsk. Uses Photojournalists perform different functions anonymous and personal photo archives to create a series in the protests: they inform, some of their of conceptual works. Participates in exhibitions in the photos become symbols — such as the USA, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, etc. His works are in image by Nadia Buzhan, a photographer for museum collections around the world. 40 41 Problem Collective Protest Newspapers Information Boards Information Board 1. 2021. 2020–21. Newspaper files printed on a printer Plastic, digital print, metal. 160×120 cm Information Board 2. 2021. Plastic, digital print, metal. 160×120 cm Information Board 3. 2021. Plastic, digital print, metal. 160×120 cm

Problem Collective — an artistic and between the movement of workers, Political mobilization contributed to don’t have access to the Internet and who research collective from Minsk — juxtaposes extraction of natural resources and the the emergence and distribution of protest don’t read independent media. They are strikes in the historical perspective with notion of “the commons.” “Information newspapers — grassroots self-publications also important because of repression of the modern day strikes in Belarus. Many Board 2” reflects on a strike in a library — created anonymously and collectively. In the media. Since the protests started, 76 factories, universities, cultural institutions by both librarians, the lowest paid job in the first days after the elections, when independent media and political websites and companies are striking against police the country, readers and possibly even the the internet was blocked throughout the have been blocked, and in late 2020 the and state violence. Not reported by the books themselves. “Information Board 3” country, the lack of up-to-date information authorities stripped the largest information official media, the strike manifests through emphasizes the importance of a feminist forced people to go out into the streets portal TUT.BY of its status as a media outlet. low quality images, public statements, strike and invisible care work. During a and deliver information through face-to- Grassroots publications also help build insider reports, employees’ dismissals recent visit to the National Library of Belarus, face communication, graffiti, leaflets and a sense of solidarity. Anyone can download and arrests, chants and banners. The one of the Collective’s members asked one newspapers. the latest issue of a newspaper from its visual form chosen by the collective is an of the workers if they had been on strike, and One of the first such publications — website or telegram channel, print it out at information board or stand — a popular tool she replied, “Oh, even if we were striking, Chestnaja Gazeta (Honest Newspaper) — home, and put it in mailboxes, leave it in a used in schools, libraries and factories to nobody would have probably noticed.” was created on September 1, 2020, and soon cafe or some other public place. Today these disseminate information. Problem Collective searches for visual this became a widespread practice. There publications are distributed throughout the Every stand is dedicated to a specific imagery — abstract and concrete, figurative are regional periodicals in Mogilev, Gomel, country, in large and small cities, and even theme related to the possibilities and and realistic — of several important Bobruysk, Grodno and other Belarusian in villages. political potential of a strike. “Information historical strikes and compares them with cities, as well as local newspapers that The exhibition features a weekly Board 1” makes reference to the relationship the strikes of 2020 and 2021. cover political events in various residential update of protest periodicals. neighborhoods. The main goal of the protest periodicals is to offer alternative, “truthful” coverage of events in the country for people who

Problem Collective is an artistic and research group formed in Minsk in 2016 by Aleksei Borisionok, Uladzimir Hramovich, Olia Sosnovskaya and Alesia Zhitkevich. Started as a reading group, Problem Collective hosts group reading sessions with a focus on the (post)

Resistance T actics, “Partisan Avenue”, Strength of “Weakness”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage, Solidarity N etworks socialist and modern history of Belarus. Shimmering I nfrastructures, Resistance T actics, Solidarity N etworks 42 43 Ales Pushkin A Present 1999/2021. Replica of the object used in the action “A Art tut.by 2014 March 25, 2014. Video documentation of the action for the President Present for the President ‘For Five Years of Fruitful “ArtOccupy” during the exhibition “ArtOccupy” in the Labor!’” held on June 21, 1999 at 38 Karl Marx Street central square of Bobr, Belarus [6:24] in Minsk. Metal, manure, paper, acrylic, posters, pitchfork, handcuffs, money. 120×90 cm

“A Present for the President” is one of to the dramatic turning point in the modern Almost all of Pushkin’s actions relate to the most famous actions of contemporary history of Belarus — the 1995 referendum, the history of repressed national culture. The Belarusian political art. It was a reaction after which the national symbols (the white- regularity and rhythm of his activity reveal to events in the country, including the end red-white flag and the Pahonya (“pursuit”) the hundred years long struggle of Soviet of Lukashenka’s first term as president on coat of arms) were abolished and Russian vs. national, nomenklatural vs. artistic, July 20, 1999. The artist went to the square became an official language. technological vs. human. The action Art tut. in front of the Presidential Residence, Ales Pushkin was detained almost by 2014 was held on Freedom Day and was dumped a cart of manure onto the asphalt, immediately afterwards. The court timed to the anniversary of the proclamation put devalued million ruble banknotes, the sentenced him to two years of probation and of the Belarusian People’s Republic in 1918, new constitution and an election poster with five years of deprivation of rights. 17 years which Soviet historiography stubbornly Alexander Lukashenko on top, and stuck a later, in 2016, after the exhibition “ZBOR. ignored. The current government, not afraid pitchfork into the pile with a banner saying Belarusian Art Movement” at Izolyatsia to look stupid and ridiculous, also resorts “For five years of fruitful labor!” There was in Kyiv, Belarusian customs officials to repressive methods of elimination and also a Belarusian red and green flag on the confiscated the photo of the action that was destruction. bottom of the cart. The flag and coat of arms displayed at the exhibition and the work was used in the action are symbols of the regime declared extremist by the court. and of Soviet restoration and are references

Ales Pushkin (1965) — artist, activist and performer. Born and lives in the town of Bobr. Graduated from the Gymnasium-College of Arts named after I.O. Akhremchik (1983) and the Belarusian State Theater and Art Institute (1990). Member of the Union of Artists of Belarus. Founder of the first private gallery in

actics, Protest Choreography, Resistance T actics, Protest “Future Perfect Continuous” Resistance T actics, Protest Choreography, “Future Perfect Continuous”, “Alive and Fragile” Vitebsk, Pushkin’s Place. 44 45 Maxim Sarychau Ala Savashevich I Don’t Want 2018–20. Installation: paper, digital photo print, Ghost 2017. Steel and felt. 430×150×150 cm to Kill You drawing, documents, letters. 1300×300 cm

In her artistic practice, Ala Savashevich She subverts monumentality by working refers to the collective experience of the with specific materials and mediums — Soviet past. She works with textile and textile and performance — that are capable The central theme of the project is law enforcement in the past five years and clothing to research the relationship of questioning the ideological aspects of police violence. The unprecedented level of exposes mechanisms of aggression that are between materials and ideology, physical materials. violence against peaceful protesters forced the norm rather than the exception in the experience and body politics. The artist Her sculpture “Ghost” (2017) draws many Belarusians to take to the streets. work of state structures. refers to monuments and the concept of attention to a secondary detail of the bronze Shock caused by the repressive actions of “I Don’t Want to Kill You” is what a “monumentality,” analyzing their purpose Lenin statue in the town of Stolin, namely the the authorities and demands to stop the policeman said to one of the respondents during Soviet times, how their functions coat. By exhibiting the coat, but removing repressions lie at the heart of the Belarusian while pressing the barrel of a pistol to the changed in the post-socialist context, and the political leader’s body, Ala refers to the protests. But the use of torture and violence back of their head. The normalization of how their forms and meanings transformed. themes of memory, ideology and materiality. in 2020-2021 is not something new for violence as a method of work is exemplified Belarusian law enforcement. In 2018, the not only by the alarming statistics (more UN Human Rights Council noted that these than 30,000 people have been arrested, “Future Perfect Continuous”, “Partisan Avenue”, Protest Choreography, Strength of “Weakness” methods are often used by Belarusian police. most of them beaten, tortured and even In the project “I Don’t Want to Kill raped) but also by the fact that no police You,” Maxim Sarychau explores the deep- have been charged for inflicting serious Pose. Position. Way 2018. Video [00:57] rooted violence and its regular use against injuries, and no investigations made into the detainees. He documents interviews with death of protesters. people who were tortured and pressured by There is similar tension in her video Ala made the video project “Voices” “Post. Position. Way” (2019) in which a (2020) in response to the current protests woman’s heels rest against the points of in Belarus. Female cultural workers and metal stars. These contradictions between activists from Poland read letters written by a body locked in ideological frameworks and female cultural workers in Belarus about the its pose and expressiveness, monumentality ongoing political struggle. and fragility, become the focus of the artist’s research.

Maxim Sarychau (1987) — photojournalist and artist. He Ala Savashevich (1989) — artist, lives and works in works on long-term visual projects that address issues Wroclaw. Graduated from the Minsk State Art College and of power and violence, both by the state and within studied at the Belarus State Academy of Arts in Minsk. traditional society. His projects and photographs have Received her master’s degree from the Academy of Fine been published in the Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit, Der Arts in Wroclaw in 2017. In her artistic practice uses Spiegel, Stern Crime, Meduza, Fotograf and others. Lives monumental forms, videos, photos and performances to “Alive and Fragile”, M echanisms of Violence and works in Minsk. “Future Perfect Continuous”, M echanisms of Violence, “Alive and Fragile” refer to collective and personal stories. 46 47 Nadya Sayapina Dollhouse 2020–21. Multimedia installation: metal, wood, acrylic, felt, paper, colored pencils, sound. 550×450×300 cm. Video “We Washed Each Other’s Hair” [8:40] is exhibited as a part of the installation. Nadya Sayapina (idea, model), Karolina Polyakova (video). Participants: Polina Brodik, Kasya Shulgan, Olga Komissarova, Lena Amnuel, Dia Proector, Nadiya Zhiva, Polina Babchenok, Viktoria We washed and braided each other’s hair. Bavykina, Natasha Chychasova We shared personal stories and told fortunes using books. We gave each other massages, improvised beauty treatments and ballpoint tattoos. We played simple games and made our own out of paper. We drew, sculpted and painted. We kept diaries and sang songs. The installation “Dollhouse” is a in the overcrowded cell. Nadya and her We argued and flirted with the guards as if they were boys from depiction of the artist’s and her cellmates’ cellmates made drawings and portraits, kept a different group or counselors. personal experience in the Akrescina and a pseudo-diary of the Little Mermaid, played It’s like we were playing camp in a correctional facility. Zhodino pre-trial detention centers. It games, wrapped each other in blankets, We spent our days turning a ten-person cell into a dollhouse. was not only an experience of fear and sang, washed each other’s hair, shared their frustration but also solidarity, caring, “quiet” intimate dreams. tactics of resistance. Caring for each other, The transformation of the cell into a empathy, building fragile infrastructures of “dollhouse” represents the reappropriation everyday life, interpersonal relationships, of a cold, inhuman space of violence and support systems and sisterhood - these are aggression. A dollhouse is a deceptive girlish lines of solidarity networks where weakness world, a world of sweet dreams, sensuality, opposes strength and imagination becomes infantilism, security. But placed in the a political tool. context of the prison system it becomes a The installation centers around a symbol of the strength of weakness, lines of table — the foundation of the prisoners’ resistance, caring and support. This is how daily life — and blankets, which embody Nadya describes her experience: warmth and care, and were in short supply

Nadya Sayapina (1989) — artist. Using various forms, from painting to performance, she focuses on mediation as a way to express the voice of “others.” On September 7, 2020, Nadya was detained for participation in the protest against violence (indirectly — for the performance “Heritage”). She fled Belarus in October and

Strength of “Weakness”, “Alive and Fragile”, Solidarity N etworks now works in Kyiv. 48 49 Daria Sazanovich Sergey Shabohin Sudden Extreme 2020. Interactive installation: video, 3D animation Social Marble: 2020. Archive of a 20-day procedural exhibition. Intimacy The Rise of Civil Multimedia installation: metal, wood, marble effect Society in Belarus adhesive film, paper, digital print, computer. 1540×200×250 cm

In this work, artist and activist Sergey documentary materials include a timeline Shabohin refers to the metaphor of “social of the rise and development of protests, as Daria Sazanovich is known in “The role of the vertical was replaced marble” — the cheap marble-patterned well as a glossary of the new civil society. Belarusian cultural circles as an artist, by distribution and non-hierarchy, and plastic film that municipal services in There are also texts, photographs, terms, illustrator and designer who uses modern participation in such communication doesn’t Belarus use to cover up graffiti on real quotes, references and dates in the form of media tools to help human rights and require sanctions or representatives.” marble. “In this symbol is the capacious documents printed and glued on the wall. activist groups. In her project “Sudden That’s how Antonina Stebur and Aliaxey image of the political structure of modern Contributors: Vika Biran, Aleksey Extreme Intimacy” she refers to the digital Talstou describe the role of technology in Belarus, where caustic ‘capitalist’ aerosol Bratochkin, Volha Hapeyeva, Mikhail Gulin, landscape that changed dramatically in the protests in Belarus.* Daria Sazanovich’s pigments are so deeply absorbed into Yuliy Ilyuschenko, Andrei Karpeka, Alexei 2020 (primarily due to the spread of the work addresses this technological aspect ‘Soviet’ marble that they can’t be washed Kuzmich, Marina Naprushkina, Nadya Covid-19 virus) and transformed how and the distorted interfaces, masks, layers, off and all that remains is to cover them up Sayapina, Antonina Stebur, Irina Sukhiy, we work and communicate, and to the glitches and errors — effects that refer to with Chinese-made film.”* Nikolai Khalezin, Vladimir Tsesler, Olga role of modern technology (messengers, the new qualities of digital solidarity and The archive documents how civil Shparaga. algorithms, digital platforms) in the empathy, and to the anxiety, frustration society in Belarus was born, with key Belarusian protests. Daria creates 3D and alienation of the online experience. prerequisites and dates; how protests spaces and environments that capture this moods emerged and were transformed; * Sergey Shabohin. From his digital sudden extreme intimacy through * Antonina Stebur and Aliaxey Talstou, and how everything resulted in an correspondence with the curators of the a series of video calls where the speakers’ “Like Water. The Dynamics of the Belarusian organized, peaceful revolution. The exhibition “Every Day.” 2021 interfaces are blended to an uncomfortably Protest: From the Existing Technological close level. Basis to the Utopian Horizon of the Future”. 2020 / Online: syg.ma

Sergey Shabohin (1984) — artist, curator, activist, founder and chief editor of the portal of contemporary Daria Sazanovich (1990) — multimedia artist also known Belarusian art ArkAktivist.org, co-founder and chief as sheeborshee. Lives and works in Bremen. Graduated editor of the platform of contemporary Belarusian art from the European Humanities University in Vilnius KALEKTAR.org. Lives and works in Poznan. Studied at the (2016) with a degree in visual design and media. Gymnasium-College of Arts named after I.O. Akhremchik Currently studying towards a master’s degree in digital (2002) and the Belarusian State Academy of Arts (2009). media at the University of the Arts Bremen. Designer and Themes: communities, public space, museums and archives,

Solidarity N etworks, Shimmering I nfrastructures, “Alive and Fragile” illustrator for many independent media and NGOs. Resistance T actics, “Future Perfect Continuous”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage, Solidarity N etworks, Shimmering I nfrastructure fear and the social body. 50 51 Jana Shostak Olga Shparaga A Minute of Shouting 2020/21. Action, video [10:00] Prison Drawings 2020. 8 graphic and text pages, colored pencil on paper. for Belarus 250×200 cm

“The drawings were made during my this revolutionary moment, and the huge second detention, which began on October role played by women; society places In her practice, Jana Shostak focuses COVID-19 remains extremely difficult for 9. They were made between October 18 responsibility on them for empathy and on non-institutional actions where her political refugees. Sometimes it seems that and 23 in the prison in Zhodino (I was caring for others. As Julia Mickiewic pointed minimalist approach to choice of method hopelessness and despair lead to failure. All released on October 24). Drawing helped out in a conversation, while the women and her appeal to the linguistic tradition of that’s left is to scream. me to structure my time and to document were in prison, the men — our partners contemporary art are clearly manifested. In early August, Jana organized the and experience the moment more fully. I and friends — began taking care of things During Pope Francis’s meeting with pilgrims action “A Minute of Shouting for Belarus” empathized with my cellmates, but I also more. I hope this will promote gender in Krakow, Shostak held up a banner saying where she would go out into the square admired them for their fortitude and spirit. equality, without which the democratic “Papa call me!” with her phone number. Her by the EU Delegation building in Warsaw That’s how I wanted to remember them. In transformations our society is so keen on action was aimed at drawing attention to the every day. On September 8, after Mateusz addition, the materiality of the prison has will hardly be possible.”** problem of pedophilia in the Catholic Church. Morawiecki met with Belarusian opposition its own texture, and the sketches help me to The image was broadcast all over the world. leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in a Krakow feel it in greater detail, to try on the variety * Olga Shparaga, Vilnius, In 2017 the artist launched a campaign in suburb, she “shouted” at the Polish prime of prison experiences. These drawings are February 24, 2021 Poland to replace the word refugee with the minister in front of the cameras to draw about shared female experience, about ** Excerpt from Olga Shparaga’s book word Novak. attention to the problems at the border. Two sisterhood.”* “The Revolution Has a Woman’s Face. The Many people have been forced to leave days later he called her, confirmed that there “Sisterhood in prison also showed Case of Belarus.” The book will be published the country in the wake of the police violence, had been violations in the implementation how important it was for Belarusian by the German publishing house Suhrkamp. searches and criminal investigations since of the resolution, and resumed the issuing of society to build horizontal relations in August 2020. But crossing the border during visas to citizens of Belarus.

Olga Shparaga (1974) — philosopher, PhD candidate, head of the concentration “Modern Society, Ethics and Politics” at the European College of Liberal Arts in Jana Shostak (1993) — artist and activist. Lives and Belarus (ECLAB). Member of the Belarusian PEN Center, works in Warsaw. Received a bachelor’s degree in art the Fem group of the Coordinating Council and the Office from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and in media of Education of the Cabinet of Sviatlana Tikhanouskaya. art from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, workshop Author of the book “Post-Holocaust Community: Towards an of Myroslaw Balka (2017). Her artistic practice focuses Inclusive Society” (Minsk, ECLAB-Books, 2018) and the on projects that galvanize communities outside the art monograph “Awakening of Political Life: Essay on the

Strength of “Weakness”, Resistance T actics, “Alive and Fragile”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage world. “Alive and Fragile”, M echanisms of Violence, Strength of “Weakness”, Solidarity N etworks Philosophy of Publicity” (Vilnius: YSU, 2010). 52 53 Jura Shust Antanina Slabodchykava Neophyte II 2021. Mixed media installation: car, fir branches, Requiem for a Dream 2021. Multimedia installation: wood, metal, wax, water- crepes, salt, adhesive tape, two video projectors, video based paint, acrylic. 300×500×200 cm. Video “Gvalt” [30:24]. 500×1500×1200 cm [2:14] with the participation of Iryna Herasimovich The production of this video was supported by transit. at and Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe) as part of the project “Things We Sense About Each Other” The installation “Requiem for a Dream” election, Antonina made a drawing of a As Belarus is gripped by a major the makeshift memorial to Alexander is a complex, multi-layered statement heart, fist and victory sign that became one political crisis, mass protests and Taraikovsky (who was killed in the early reflecting the feelings, fears and hopes of the most important and recognizable unprecedented violence, and the world is days of the protests) that municipal workers associated with the protests in Belarus. The symbols of the protests. Six months into the engulfed in a pandemic, Jura Shust films would cover with salt; a numberless car emotional state of the protesters and those protests, the artist reinterprets the work in a group of Belarusian millennials who find crowned with pine needles that ran over who remain in Belarus today have not only the new conditions of resistance. The melted themselves in a parallel world. As the artist the salt, hinting at the vehicles used by intimate and personal dimensions but also wax composition, enlarged to life-size, is himself writes, “Through the looking glass, law enforcement to abduct people; as well political ones. both a symbol of soft resistance tactics and where time has closed in a loop, where the as crepes hanging from branches that The artist’s installation — a black a symbol of collective trauma. “I think my past and the future are one.”* Young people materialize from the video narrative as cube the size of a police van — is a symbol heart burst,” the artist says. “The awareness go through a series of mysterious rituals an archaic symbol of the sun. The heroes of aggression and repression. Police vans of what is happening is so unbearable.” that are references both to pagan myths of the first part of the Neophyte project packed with peaceful protesters are the In this work Antonina shows the ability and to the aimless pastimes of modern (2019) were looking for crypto objects in the first stage in an encounter with the machine of art to not only depict something but youth: they make drawings on the ground, forest — bookmarks or fern flowers. In of violence, one which more than 30,000 also to create a field of tension, a collective burn a tree stump, sing, beat each other the second part, young people explore people have had during the protests. space for experiencing complex, often with nettles and decode burns. The forest spaces of opacity and regeneration under Inside the narrow, claustrophobic contradictory emotions. It is this feeling of becomes a place of protection, a shelter conditions of authoritarian rule and total space of the installation, the viewer sees a shock, of a “bursting heart,” that binds the for magical and partisan forces, a space of surveillance. wax composition of the three main symbols protesters together and is important to the non-linearity and freedom. of the election campaign and the united political solidarization of society. The installation includes: a two- * Jura Shust. From his correspondence headquarters of the opposition. Before the channel video recording of this serene with the curators of the exhibition and hypnotic world; a salt carpet covering “Every Day.” 2021 up the words “We will not forget” — the phrase inscribed on the pavement near

Antanina Slabodchykava (1979) — artist, performer. Lives Jura Shust (1983) — artist, lives and works in Berlin. and works in Minsk. Graduated from the Minsk State Art Received a master’s degree from the Royal Academy of College named after A. K Glebov and the Belarusian Fine Arts, Ghent and graduated from the Higher Institute State Academy of Arts. Works with different media, for Fine Arts, Ghent. In his artistic practice he from collage to total installations. In her work she focuses on the intersection of rituals and myths with addresses themes of motherhood, identity, gender, power

“Future Perfect Continuous”, “Alive and Fragile”, M echanisms of Violence, Shimmering I nfrastructures technology, science and biopolitics. “Alive and Fragile”, M echanisms of Violence, Strength “Weakness” and memory. 54 55 Anna Sokolova Tamara Sokolova, Anna Sokolova Blown-Up 2020. Multimedia installation: flag, wind machine Gummitwist 2020/21. Multimedia installation: rubber band connecting controlled by frequency converter and Arduino, two columns, wooden podium, monitor. 115×1000×150 cm. surveillance camera, monitor. 500×750×400 cm Video: full HD, no sound, [10:00] loop

A black-white-black flag flutters in the of works entitled “Ornament.” The works The installation “Gummitwist” was tension, in the literal sense, is transmitted wind from the fan. The surveillance camera represent the experience of rethinking created by Tamara Sokolova and Anna through the elastic band stretched around directed at the flag captures the movement the potential of lines and ornaments in the Sokolova for “Touchable Distance” — the the large columns, while the vibrating video of the white stripe on the black background context of new media. Video and computer last exhibition at the legendary Ў Gallery image enhances the feeling of shock and and transmits the image to the monitor. The programming of visual objects manifest of contemporary art in Minsk. Its closure fear. The reference to a children’s game is work was first shown at the Bloom Gallery the existence of a line as a dynamic rather is connected with the arrest of one of the an attempt to return to the carefree times in Dusseldorf in 2020. After the space than a static phenomenon. The medially co-owners, Aliaksandr Vasilevich, who between a mother and daughter. Lines of was closed due to the quarantine, Anna conditioned dynamics of the line — that is, was recognized as a political prisoner. The communication stretched in the void create Sokolova’s dynamic installation could be its constant transformation in time — offers exhibition was devoted to the quarantine signs that do not require speech. This is a seen through the large showcase window, new forms and ways for a work of art to and the experience of cooperation and tactic the artists use when working with which “duplicated” the monitor screen. interact with the surrounding space and solidarity during the coronavirus pandemic. minimalist sculpture, revealing the tragic The meditative, repetitive movement of a new way for the viewer to perceive this Isolation and the complete absence of situation where the imagination follows the the white stripe on the black background is space. tactile connections prompted female artists rules of the game — to increase the level the main element of Anna Sokolova’s series living in different countries to create a joint of difficulty the action is moved higher and work remotely. A feeling of uncertainty and higher.

Tamara Sokolova (1950) — artist and sculptor. Born in Mühldorf, lives and works in Minsk. Graduated from the Belarusian Theater and Art Institute. Member of the Belarusian Union of Artists. Member of the Nemiga-17 group (1988–2002). Works with shapes that combine the concrete and the abstract.

Anna Sokolova (1975) — artist, lives and works in Anna Sokolova (1975) — artist, lives and works in Dusseldorf. Graduated from the Minsk State Art College, Dusseldorf. Graduated from the Minsk State Art College, Belarusian State Academy of Arts, Le Fresnoy National Belarusian State Academy of Arts, Le Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Arts, Academy of Media Arts Studio for Contemporary Arts, Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Works with architectural space and multimedia Cologne. Works with architectural space and multimedia

( I m)possibility of L anguage, Shimmering nfrastructures installations. Strength of “Weakness”, ( I m)possibility L anguage, Solidarity N etworks installations. 56 57 Olia Sosnovskaya Olia Sosnovskaya & A.Z.H. Exercise 2021. Three digital collage, print on oracal. F-Word 2021. Video [12:10] Each 150×100 cm

Olia Sosnovskaya explores the temporalities: the past, because it is a The video “F-Word” by artists Olia to paint those who take to the streets as relationship between language, affect and document; the future, because it provides Sosnovskaya and A.Z.H. is part of the “Armed nationalists and fascists, particularly by political movements through the concept for endless reproduction of movement; and and Dangerous” project by Ukrainian artist pointing to the use of the white-red-white of “musical scores” in the context of the the present - the reading and performing Mykola Ridnyi (www.ozbroeni.in.ua). The flag (a symbol of the protests) by Belarusian current clashes in Belarus, as well as other of an action. A score is also a means of video series is devoted to the war in Donbas, collaborators in WWII. Meanwhile, the political events in (post)socialist history. representation and suggests a certain militarization of society and attitudes on protesters also call the authorities and Analyzing movements as gestures and degree of untranslatability (of an action and violence in modern Ukraine. law enforcement “fascists.” They point to collective choreography, Sosnovskaya uses its effects into a sign). Olia Sosnovskaya and A.Z.H. refer to the the repressive apparatus, which ignores the concept of scores in a broader context: The artist studies the use of language, current protests in Belarus, political struggle, the law and applies all forms of violence graphic recording of motion, including speech and text in politics, in describing police and state violence through the against “others” — those who don’t support texts, documents, images. The score is current events and past experiences. She discourse of fascism. In both the Western the government’s status quo. Both of these used in recording movement, dance or works with the concept of affect and explores and post-Socialist contexts, this concept is positions, in turn, are criticized by the music, and allows you to operate in several what remains beyond language. a space of symbolic struggle. The topic of academic community for historical untruths. fascism and victory over it has for a long time The artists trace the context of the been instrumentalized by the Belarusian use of the concept of fascism and show government in its official narrative and is the political, social, affective and symbolic central to the modern state ideology of effects they produce. Belarus. Since the start of the protests, the ideological state apparatus has been trying

Olia Sosnovskaya (1988) — artist, researcher and Olia Sosnovskaya (1988) — artist, researcher and organizer. Lives and works in Vienna and Minsk. Member organizer. Lives and works in Vienna and Minsk. Member of the art group Problem Collective and co-founder of of the art group Problem Collective and co-founder of the self-organized platform Work Hard! Play Hard! Ph.D. the self-organized platform Work Hard! Play Hard! Ph.D. candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Works with candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Works with

( I m)possibility of L anguage, Protest Choreography text, performative and visual practices. “Future Perfect Continuous”, M echanisms of Violence, ( I m)possibility of L anguage text, performative and visual practices. 58 59 Aliaxey Talstou Igor Tishin Observing 2020. Video [16:57] Line of Fear 2021. Installation: metal, wood, coal, acrylic. Solidarity 400×900×270 cm

The exhibition features two works that The high relief depicts people of different Aliaxey Talstou created during the protests. countries united in the struggle for rights They are united by the idea of solidarity and freedoms around the world. The video and unfold against the backdrop of the was made during the first month of the Igor Tishin’s art has always been and modernism, becomes the interrupted architecture of Soviet modernism, which was protests, when many cultural workers felt undisciplined and out of control — like in line of modernist art and politics, with its international and emancipative in nature lost amid the scale of the unfolding events. the exhibition “Lessons in Bad Art” (1992), open utopian horizon and innovative artistic and associated with the processes of the Aliaxey Talstou acts as an observer and where he brought together the voices of language. Like Chaïm Soutine’s biography, acceleration of the future. records what happens. Two eras and two pupils and students that represented an this line slips and migrates, and resonates The video “Observing Solidarity” columns of solidarity reveal the impossibility alternative to dogmatic academic education, in 2020 with the seizure of Soutine’s painting documents a mass column of people of putting control of the protest in the hands and in his project “Quiet Partisan Movement” “Eva” (1928) and the entire corporate marching past the Soviet high relief of a single group, and take the movement for (1997), where he constructed the image of collection of Belgazprombank as a result “Solidarity” that was created in 1979 by rights to the global level, uniting them with a partisan and brought it out of ideological of the absurd arrest of one of the potential

“Partisan Avenue”, Solidarity N etworks Anatol Arcimovich and Anatol Jaskin. other social and political movements. instrumentalization. presidential candidates, Viktar Babaryka. The conceptualization of his artistic This portrait of a girl became a symbol method, based on expression, collage, of cultural and political resistance in the suggestiveness and special use of lines, summer of 2020. If the Past 2020. Performative poetry: video documentation [4:42] takes place in the project “Soutine’s Line” In this new installation, in which the Will Not End (2012), where it is not only a means of artist paints constructions made from figuration but also cultural and political plywood and boards, this line, as an artistic The work “If the Past Will Not End” a fantasy! I demand a dream! Future!” he development. The title of this project refers method and conceptual horizon, like the was shown in Brest in November 2020 and exclaims, emphasizing the impossibility of a to Stalin Line, an open-air military history events in Belarus, strays, breaks off, stands documents a performative poetic statement. linear understanding of time. In a situation museum near Minsk that embodies the out and accentuates. This is a line of fear and The artist reads his own poetry, referring where protest is a temporal chasm, poetry state approach to exploiting the history solidarity, doubt and despair, confusion and to the legacy of Soviet modernism. He becomes one of the best ways to search and memory of the Second World War. agitation. This is the line of effects — tense poses questions to himself and expresses for language in times of fragility, instability, Soutine’s Line, as the line of avant-garde figures and tense landscapes. doubts about ideology, the possible of the uncertainty and hope. future, and changes in general. “I demand

Aliaxey Talstou (1984) — artist and writer. Lives and works in Minsk. Focuses on the topics of social and political tension, the impact of technology on human Igor Tishin (1958) — artist, lives and works in Minsk, consciousness, environmental disasters, crisis in Brussels, St. Petersburg. Graduated from the Minsk State general. In his artistic practice he uses a wide range Art College (1978) and the Belarusian State Theater and of techniques and media, from painting and drawing to Art Institute (1983). Taught at the Minsk State Art “Future Perfect Continuous”, “Partisan Avenue”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage speculative meditation. “Future Perfect Continuous”, “Partisan Avenue”, M echanisms of Violence College (1986–91). 60 61 Raman Tratsiuk Maxim Tyminko Electric Objects Electric Objects / Pliers. 2020. Metal, wood, How Long Can You 2021. Multi-channel media installation: two projectors, plexiglass, high voltage generator and electronics. Stare at 250,000 microcomputer, video cables, Javascript, generated in 30×140×17 cm Square Cells real time. 250×500×500 cm Electric Objects / Sickles. 2018. Metal, wood, Changing Color? plexiglass, high voltage generator and electronics. 66×66×17 cm Electric Objects / Saws. 2018. Metal, wood, plexiglass, high voltage generator and electronics. 70×160×17 cm This work is based on Game of complex clusters arise that can multiply, Electric Objects / Machetes. 2018. Metal, wood, Life, a mathematical model devised by move, absorb and mutate. Observing and plexiglass, high voltage generator and electronics. mathematician John Conway in 1970. It is studying this dynamic model is an exciting 50×50×17 cm one of a wider class of mathematical models activity, but it takes on additional meaning known as cellular automata. if we interpolated it onto turbulent social A cellular automaton is typically a processes. regular array of cells, each of which is There is a striking similarity between This work by Belarusian artist Raman such as the energy of the protesters, and a either “off” or “on.” Following a small set this model and the strategy that emerged Tratsiuk was created prior to the current metaphor for violence and fear. of simple rules, a cell “chooses” its state in the Belarusian protests. Self-organization, events in Belarus, but the image of tools Aesthetically, Raman Tratsiuk’s depending on the state of neighboring cells. horizontal connections, decentralization with an electric charge appearing between works refer to avant-garde art. Black tools For example, this work uses the following of protests and mutual support networks them accurately demonstrates the tension on a white background in a transparent rules: a cell switches “on” if it has exactly rhyme with the emergence of complex between protesters and security forces. plexiglass cube are references to the works three “on” neighbors, and switches “off” if structures in Game of Life. The development Ordinary rusted garden tools — saws, sickles, of Kazimir Malevich, Mikhail Larionov and it has less than two or more than three “on” of the system balances on the boundary machetes and pliers — placed in the context Natalia Goncharova. The artist, who in his neighbors. Adding time to the system and between determinism, given the clear set of the exhibition are perceived not as tools practice often uses performance and ready- initiating the process of choosing a state of elementary rules, and the complete of labor but as objects of resistance, violence mades, characterizes these as performative in an endless cycle produces an extremely unpredictability of extremely complex and death. From time to time an electrical works in the sense that the electric charge complex and unpredictable system that chain reactions and interactions between spark appears between the objects, which is activates the objects and introduces an resembles an evolving biological organism emerging points of tension. both a metaphor for an explosion of energy, element of randomness and tension. or colony expanding its habitat. Numerous

Raman Tratsiuk (1981) — artist, curator and performer. Lives and works in Poznan. Member of the Bergamot Maxim Tyminko (1972) — media artist and curator. Lives group. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in and works in Amsterdam. Studied at the Minsk State Art Poznan (1999–2007). Received his PhD in fine arts and College (1987–1991) and Academy of Media Arts Cologne multimedia communications in 2012. Associate professor (2000–2006). Founder of the self-publishing platform at the faculty of art education and curatorship. Antibrainwash.net, co-founder and editor of the platform Interests: performativity, participation, issues of Cultprotest.me, co-founder and developer of the pxFLUX

M echanisms of Violence, “Alive and Fragile” self-presentation online, art in everyday life. Protest Choreography, Solidarity N etworks, Shimmering I nfrastructures media art distribution platform. 62 63 Alesia Zhitkevich ASEXUAL BELARUS 2015–19. Installation. 125×1000×700 cm. 10 plastic nameplates. 80×80 cm, 125×100 cm, 125×65 cm

The series “Asexual Belarus” appeared self-identification and free expression of in 2015 and was the artist’s reaction to an their sexuality, then there is a high level incident on the Minsk Sea when riot police of tolerance in that society and desire to went after sunbathers on an unofficial defend your rights and those of others. The nudist beach that had been there for the artist criticizes state control over people’s last 20 years. Alesia Zhitkevich addresses bodies, which prevents the formation of the topic of power on the micro level, at the the individual in society. “I hope that in the level of sexuality, and the normalization of future, this colorless, faded, painful, asexual human bodies. The artist uses the image Belarus that now ignores and suppresses of the beach as a symbolic space of the the ‘bodies’ of its citizens will become the highest manifestation of freedom, including coolest and freest beach in Europe.”* freedom of the body. At the same time, the beach acts as a transit space, where the boundary between private and public, * Alesia Zhitkevich. From her intimate and social, personal and political correspondence with the curators of the is blurred. If an individual has the right to exhibition “Every Day.” 2021

Alesia Zhitkevich (1990) — artist, lives and works in Minsk. Graduated from the Gymnasium-College of Arts named after I.O. Akhremchik (2009) and the graphics department at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts (2015). Member of the art research group Problem Collective since 2016. Works with graphics,

Resistance T actics, Protest Choreography, “Future Perfect Continuous”, ( I m)possibility of L anguage installation, audio and video art. 64 65 Every Day Alena Davidovich Vasilisa Palianina Yaugen Anastasiia Yablonska Art. Paul Dorokhin Uladzimir Pazniak Ilia Yerashevich Solidarity. Andrei Dureika Lesia Pcholka Oleg Yushko PR & communications Resistance Dzmitry Dzmitryjeu Dan Perjovschi Alesia Zhitkevich coordination eeefff Problem Collective Dariia Zhdanova 25.03–04.05.2021 Free Choir Ales Pushkin Posters and flags are Zhanna Gladko Karol Radziszewski provided by the platforms Special thanks to Mystetskyi Arsenal Janna Grak Ania Redko Cultprotest.me and Valentina Kiseleva Kyiv, Ukraine Mikhail Gulin Maxim Sarychau Antibrainwash.net. and Anna Chistoserdova 10–12 Lavrska street Honest People Ala Savashevich Museum of Flags Flags.dze. +38 (044) 288 52 25 Uladzimir Hramovich Nadya Sayapina chat Texts artarsenal.in.ua Hutkasmachnaa Daria Sazanovich Aleksei Borisionok Воris Iwanow Konstantsin Selikhanov Mentoring Andrei Dureika Supported by the Nikita Kadan Sergey Shabohin Yuliya Vaganova Marina Naprushkina International Renaissance Nikolay Karabinovych Jana Shostak Sergey Shabohin Foundation Sergey Kiryuschenko Olga Shparaga Project manager Antonina Stebur Aleksander Komarov Jura Shust Anna Pohribna Maxim Tyminko Curators Sergey Kozhemyakin Antanina Slabodchykava Aleksei Borisionok Zakhar Kudin Slavs and Tatars Project coordination English translation Andrei Dureika Alexei Kuzmich Anton Snt Alina Dzeravianka Christina Kuzmych Marina Naprushkina Yuriy Ledyan Anna Sokolova Natasha Chychasova Sergey Shabohin Ulia Liashkevich & Julia Tamara Sokolova Printing supervisor Antonina Stebur Golovina Olia Sosnovskaya Technical director Inna Bondar Maxim Tyminko Lipovy Cvet Group Karolis Strautniekas Serhii Diptan Victoria Lomasko Masha Svyatogor Artists Artyom Loskutov Aliaxey Talstou Exhibition #дамаудобнаявбыту Alexey Lunev Alexey Terexov architecture A.Z.H. Sergiy Maidukov Igor Tishin Oleksandr Burlaka Raman Aksionau Angelina Mass Jouri Toreev Tasha Arlova Victor Melamed Raman Tratsiuk Graphic design Yauhen Attsetski Vika Mitrichenko Daria Trublina Lera Guevska Rufina Bazlova Hanna Murajda Vladimir Tsesler Alla Sorochan Anatoly Belov Marina Naprushkina Maxim Tyminko Bergamot Group Ulyana Nevzorova Igor Varkulevich Educational program Vika Biran & Olga Łaniewska Nikolay Oleynikov & Anya Alexander Vasukovich Sofia Riabchuk Nadia Buzhan Kurbatova Work Hard! Play Hard! Nicole Katenkari Mitya Churikov Nick Osadchiy Working group Kateryna Makarova 66 67 Due to the continuation of the quarantine restrictions, the educational program for the exhibition (discussions, lectures, workshops, slow art meetings, excursions, children’s programs) may change. Please, see the current schedule of events by following the link →→→→→→→

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