ALBUM BY IGOR SAVCHENKO IN PARTISAN’S COLLECTION
«The pictures of Igor Savchenko can never be nostalgic. Though, with regard to the selection of colour you can make every effort, and the scratches and smudges, the waved boundary lines might lead the viewer to this aberration. However, all I see is the opposite of nostalgia. It is, rather, an absolutely current presence…» Jörg […]
CHARITY AUCTION IN SUPPORT OF THE LOHVINAU BOOKSTORE
Charity auction in support of the Lohvinau Bookstore which is in danger of disappearance. Within couple of weeks it has to pay an unmanageable fine. Belarusian and Polish artists have decided to donate their art works to help the Bookstore. Why is it important? — read the answer on savelohvinau.club or read on The Guardian. Are you an artist and […]
LUDMILA RUSAVA. LIFE AS THE MANIFESTO
In Belarus at late Soviet period there was silence and discursive ignorance in terms of feminist ideas. However, women artists, of course, did exist and work in their field. And among them there was Ludmiła Rusava, one of the leading figures of the Belarusian nonconformist art
NOT LEGITIMATION, BUT — IMITATION
What is happening with contemporary art in Belarus: does it use guerrilla tactics or is it becoming colonized, being transformed into local «mainstream»?
WAR WITNESS’ ARCHIVE
The project «War Witness’ Archive» emerged as a response to the global trend of referring to history, of reinventory of the memory about the last century events rich in wars, disasters and conflicts. When getting acquainted with photographic and historical archives of World War I (the Great War) visitors become participants of a talk about tragedies of the past and present. They form their attitude, interpretation and evaluation of the events which both date back one hundred years and happen presently
MAXIM TYMINKO: TRANSFORMATION INTO A VISUAL STEAM
Belarusian artist Maxim Tyminko left the country in the mid-1990s. In 2005 he graduated from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne (Germany), and has been living abroad since then. Now you can find him in Cologne and Amsterdam: living between several cities is an ordinary practice for contemporary Western artists. However, whenever Maxim is invited to come to Belarus, he accepts the proposal even despite of the lack of the due conditions.
EXPOSITION OF THE «XXY» ART PROJECT
Art Project «XXY» is a collaborative project of Contemporary Art Gallery Y, multimedia magazine 34mag.net and media project «pARTisan». The main topics are gender and sexuality. The date: 13.09.-2.10.2014
NOT WHAT WE THINK WE OUGHT TO SEE FROM BELARUS
Many foreign audiences assume all Belarusian artists make political work, often inserting political discourses into pieces that aim to explore other subjects with different metaphors. Below is an interview with members of an independent Belarusian theater company that you probably haven´t heard of yet, that hopes to create performances that have nothing to do with politics. If Korniag Theatre is not interested in discussing Lukashenko or «the last dictatorship in Europe», like we expect, then what is their work about?
FREEDOMS AND MYTHS OF «BELARUSIAN CLIMATE»
«Why do people create myths? Well, people do not exist in this reality, in principle!» — Philip Chmyr concludes, giving me a cunning look across the table in a busy café. Next to him there is one more protagonist of the Belarussian art-irreality sitting — Ihar Korzun, for more than an hour braiding an infinitely intricate and controversial story of the rise and dissolution of the art group «Belarusian climate»
6TH LINE GALLERY: 1992 — 1998
13 November — 13 December 2014 in Minsk in Museum of Modern Art and Contemporary Art Centre the exhibition Suma Sumarum will be open. It’s the first project of the legendary gallery 6th Line after a pause of 16 years
SUBVERSIVE PRACTICES OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN BELARUS
To counter the dominance of ideology in the public consciousness, the Belarusian independent community more and more often articulates the idea of having a public platform where agonistic competition among different discourses would be possible. The rivalry among them would thus generate new meanings. Contemporary art becomes one of such platforms. This kind of intervention can be seen if one looks at three events in Belarusian contemporary art: the art of the painter called A.R.Ch (A.R.Č)., the project by Marina Naprushkina (Maryna Napruškina) «Anti-propaganda Bureau», and the exhibition of Zhanna Gladko (Žanna Hładko) works «Inciting Force»
ZHANNA GLADKO: THE RIGHT OVER ONE’S OWN BODY
Identity and its numerous manifestations became an object of attention of curators and participants of the art project «XXY», which opened in early September 2014 in the Minsk gallery «Ў». Not for the first time within this gallery’s space we can find the works of a contemporary Belarusian artist Zhanna Gladko
MARINA NAPRUSHKINA: IT IS A PARALLEL WORLD
A year ago Marina Naprushkina, a Belarusian artist and author of the project Office for Anti-Propaganda who has been living and working in Berlin for a few years, launched a campaign Neue Nachbarschaft//Moabit. This is a volunteer initiative which works with refugees and protects their rights. Marina Naprushkina dwells on the campaign’s history, activities, outcomes and prospects
#SEX #GENDER #ART: «MY RIGHT FOR PORNO»
On September 2014 the discussion «#Sex #Gender #Art in the Post-Soviet Space» was held. It’s a part of XXY art project about gender and sexuality. The participants: A.Belov (UA), Zhanna Gladko (BY), Michaił Hulin (BY), Sergey Shabohin (BY)
MANIFESTA 10: IN FACT THEY’RE COLONIZED
On June 28, 2014 The European Biennial of Contemporary Art Manifesta10 was launched in St. Petersburg, according to some opinions — the biggest and most controversial art event of the year (according Russian media). St. Petersburg was selected as the venue for this year’s Biennale, partly due to the 250th anniversary of the Hermitage. Tania Arcimovič (critic, «pARTisan» media project editor,), Alaksiej Barysionak (critic, «ArtAktivist» editor) and Volha Šparaha(philosopher, «New Europe» editor) share their impressions about the Biennale, about the strategy of (non) participation (if we can use such tactics speaking about Belarus?), also trying to reflect on the reasons why Belarus is not present in Manifesta
MEMORY WHICH LACKS SPACE
The performance «Chernobyl» of the independent theatre group «Kryly Halopa» («Slave’s Wings») from Brest is the first part of the project «Stories of Belarus», originally conceived as a theatrical multi-volume project with every part being dedicated to the events of the country’s contemporary history. Finally the Belarusian public was able to watch the performance, too — during the theatre-ecological festival «Pryzba»
THE COUNTRY NEEDED TWO FREE THEATRES
AKSANA HAIKO, the founder of «Kryly Halopa» theatre, actress and director, tells about how to create while «being unfree», about a challenge to «professionals», a fight against art commissions, and about a new stage of her activity
THE GIEDROYC AWARD IN MONOPOLIZED SPACE
On July, 8 the discussion on the topic «The Giedroyc Award: is There a Strategy?» took place in «ŁohvinaŬ» (Logvinau publishing house) bookshop in Minsk. Did the years of the award’s existence lead to enhancing of the presence of the Belarusian literature in the book market? Why, then, did the largest literary prize go unnoticed by mass media and received no due resonance? Can we name as a cause of such neglect only those conditions in which independent literature has to survive in our country?
HATKA: TO FIND YOUR INSIDE
In September 2013 Uladzimir Śćerbań (Vladimir Shcherban), director of Belarus Free Theatre, mentioned very briefly in his blog after a long line of reasoning that the premises in which they had lived and worked for almost six years, better known as hatka (Note: «hatka» in the Belarusian language means «a small house»), no longer belonged to them.
SIARHEI HUDZILIN: BELARUS IS A MULTICULTURAL CHAOS
It is not for the first time that among the winners of «Belarus Press Photo» we find the name of Siarhei Hudzilin — a photographer from «the first Belarusian newspaper», a man who truly loves his job and goes on documenting our routine, asking himself and the audience questions that deal with a very sensitive and yet necessary issue — the Belarusian national identity