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until 16.04. | #3326ARTatBerlin | KVOST presents in collaboration with EEP from 10th February 2022 the group exhibition Dialog between Generations . Belarusian Female Artists.
Participating artists: Kate Smuraga, Tatsiana Tkachova, Oksana Veniaminova, Vasilisa Palianina and the VEHA Archive.
Various approaches to contemporary photographic thought and research blend seamlessly with classical portrait photography in the exhibition curated by Maya Hristova and Yevgeny Roppel / EEP Berlin, inviting viewers to look behind the Western veil of silence at Belarusian culture and photographic tradition. For many of us, Minsk, which is only about 1000 km from Berlin, a similar distance to Paris, could be on another continent.
What makes us see one culture as familiar and the other as exotic? To develop sympathy for one and pigeonhole the other? Behind the stereotypes of Belarus or of what the mass media present as another “failing state” and as “the last dictatorship of Europe”, there is pressure. Pressure to learn more about the culture of a country where mass protests, repression of the media and the abductions and torture of civilians are currently taking place.
While all this is happening, we seek comfort in art. It is this new generation of Belarusian artists who have gained the power to translate the ambivalence of historical silence into tangible works of art. For many of them, reflecting on the past often means reimagining and rebuilding the broken dialogue with their own history. It is memory work out of extreme necessity. And it seems that recovering and examining the missing parts of collective memory, often exposes the deliberate censorship of the present. Indeed, in the uncertainties of interpretation and the discrepancy between past and future lies the hope for transformation.
Moreover, the reappraisal of history through the subjective point of view of Belarusian artists proves invaluable, because in Belarus the personal is currently political to a much greater degree than elsewhere in Europe. Historical trauma, past and present ongoing political conflicts and subsequent journeys of displacement are, if not directly depicted, continuously reflected. Intimate connections between the private and the political become starting points for the exploration of memory.
KVOST and EEP, two Berlin-based organisations promoting the arts in the Eastern European context, present an exhibition in which curators Maya Hristova and Yevgeny Roppel explore visual codes of memory and knowledge structuring in Belarus.
Through the photographic medium and the personal experiences of the artists, a dialogue between generations is presented, which should help to gain a deeper understanding of multidimensionality in Belarus.
The exhibition is curated by Maya Hristova and Yevgeny Roppel / EEP Berlin.
Oksana Veniaminova / White Dress (Natasha) / 2017 / Inkjet print / 40 cm x 40 cm
courtesy: EEP Berlin und KVOST
Kate Smuraga
In her project, Smuraga explores the elusive state of time and the individual – the moment when the present becomes the past; the very degree of the presence of the past in every moment of the “here and now”. With a mixed sense of dread, fear and determination, she looks at people close to her and things that surround her. In doing so, photography is a means for her to explore the personal boundaries of “home” and to determine what exactly about her and her loved ones can remain unchanged.
Tatsiana Tkachova
“The little girl Vera Zenko from Volozhin followed with her eyes the cart on which the fascists were taking away her pregnant mother. They had taken pity on the child and thrown her off the back of the cart.” Vera calls her life “the last seasons” and recites her biography through what is in her wardrobe. The wardrobe of 92-year-old Vera from Valoshyn in Belarus is elegant and fancy. For the photographer, Vera took the clothes of her life out of the wardrobe once again. The fabric from which Vera’s story is woven is permeated with traces of happiness, but also of sadness. She likes to dress up and dress extravagantly. The clothes she wears are as varied as the facets of her family history.
Oksana Veniaminova
“Marriage status serves as an indicator of a woman’s success, so every item associated with this festive day has a very special meaning, even after the fact,” Veniaminova tells us. “The wedding dress, the veil, the icon used during the ceremony, the bridal bouquet are shrouded in myth, awe and superstition. Popular belief gives the wedding dress a mystical power. To preserve a happy marriage, the bride must keep the dress forever.”
VEHA-Archiv
The socio-cultural initiative VEHA works with photographs from Belarusian archives and the history of everyday life. The exhibition shows a curated selection of photographs from the VEHA archive.
The VEHA archive was founded in 2017 by artist and researcher Lesia Pcholka (b. 1989 in Borisov, BLR), which she has been running ever since. From 2012, Pcholka has been intensively involved in the contemporary photography scene in Belarus. In 2013, she founded the first charity shop in Belarus “KaliLaska”, which she managed until 2016. Since 2020, she has been a lecturer at the European University of Liberal Arts in Belarus.
Vasilisa Palianina
“In August 2018, my grandmother Larisa passed away. After her death, a new phase has formed in the relationship between us. She started coming to me in troubled dreams. When I came to Smorgon and spent weekends with her, we had no conflicts or arguments. There was no fear or insecurity either. Now, along with the fond memories, there is a sense of fear and confusion. This is a project about my grandmother, her presence, about living a new phase of time without her and with her.”
The Larisa 2019 project is an attempt to process and redefine the relationship and feeling with your grandmother through memory images, illustrations, animations and a projection.
Opening: Wednesday, 9th February 2022, 2:00 – 9:00 pm.
Exhibition dates: Thursday, 10th February – Saturday 16th April 2022
to the gallery
Exhibition Dialog between Generations Belarusian Female Artists – Galerie KVOST | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin
