Belarus is a country filled with culture, famous artists from or born in Belarus, include Marc Chagall and Chaïm Soutine. As most watching the news, we were and are shocked by the level of brutality the protestors of Belarus are being met with when protesting peacefully. To read more about the situation, we suggest going through these links:
https://www.hrw.org/europe/central-asia/belarus
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/11/belarus-violence-abuse-response-election-protests
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia/belarus/
Many from the contemporary art community either supporting, in or from Belarus are standing up for their beliefs and rights.
Below are some of them:
The Belarus Free Theatre
Belarus Free Theatre, produces theatre shows alongside fighting for Human Rights. They break down the line drawn between theatre and campaigning. The theatre are an award-winning independent company, committed to producing, educating and campaigning in the related fields of the arts, internationalism, and social justice. They are currently prohibited in practicing their art in Belarus.
Their activism branch forms part of The Ministry of Counterculture a online platform addressing the role the arts play in social change, featuring unexpected and untold stories of human resilience and creativity.
Repost from @belarusfreetheatre : #evaluation Fifteen Belarusian women stand up against Dictatorship and join @belarusfreetheatre artistic stunt #Imwiththebanned .Dressed in prison robes, they walked from the Serpentine Gallery to The Belarusian Embassy in London, UK.
https://www.belarusfreetheatre.com/
Slavs and Tatars
Art collective, Slavs and Tatars is a faction of polemics and intimacies devoted to an area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia. The collective’s practice is based on three activities: exhibitions, books and lecture-performances.
Below is a repost of their recent post on Belarus:
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Repost @slavsandtatars : What's happening in Belarus is not particularly surprising: an autocrat is brutally cracking down on his people after a fraudulent vote. What is surprising is Europe's and the world's deafening silence. The Belarusians are amongst the most hospitable, discreet and sadly overlooked people we know. Pls donate to fund to help the thousands injured and arrested in past days. Link in bio #highlightbelarus
https://www.facebook.com/donate/1123543824684874/?fundraiser_source=external_url
Katya Granova
Artist RCA MA Painting and ex-psychologist, Katya Granova responds through art performance to the current situation in Belarus. She feels that few institutions and countries are supporting Belarus and noticing what is happening there. So she decided to showcase her body through art, painting the independent Belarusian flag on herself, following the thought process that people are attracted to body features and via that, may thus then, learn about the situation in Belarus and aim to help. Below the performance art post, is one of her paintings from her current work.
Repost: @katyagranova
Artists with Belarus
Artists with Belarus are an Instagram page we discovered online that are aiming to unite a creative community who are protesting peacefully and sharing their thoughts on the current situation through art.
Rufina Bazlova
Artist Rufina Bazlova is embroidering the political situation in Belarus as it unfolds. Read the caption under her images.
Ruffina Bazlova is an artist we discovered online and appreciated her work. You can read more about her and the current situation here on Global Voices: https://globalvoices.org/2020/08/11/meet-the-artist-embroidering-belaruss-protests/ She talks about the political aspect of her work reflecting on the tradition of folklore and embroidery as well as her chosen colours of red and white which represent the flag of Independence of Belarus.
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Repost @rufinabazlova
Images © to the orgs or artists referenced - reposted from their public Instagram