'The decade of 1981-1991 is an outstanding and prophetic decade for Belarus. It was the time when a whole generation of young creative individuals entered the art movement. Their strength was in the freedom of choice and almost unbearable responsibility for it. These young peopled learnt new ways of existence, new traditions and were in a constant search of 'the real art'. That was how the culture that did not accept any norms and rules imposed by the society was formed. Culture policy in the former Soviet Union was built on the perception of art as an ideological activity and demanded that it fully met state and political programs. Those who did not accept these demands had to stay in the underground and their activities were announced an antisocial and anti-state thing.

From a great number of artists of the 1980s we have selected for this album those ones who had most actively expressed themselves in that period of time. Their works could be viewed as a reflection of that time which shows the most significant and drastic changes in Belarusian culture. The researchers have not yet come up with a single general word which could define the activity of the artists of that period. This art is called in a number of ways: 'non-official', 'non-conformist', 'post-avant-garde', 'underground', 'BELARUSIAN UNDEGROUND OF THE 1980s'. But whatever it is called, this art has become a real image of independence and freedom'.

Volha Archipava / 'Belarusian Avant-Garde of the 1980s'