BELARUS PAVILION

Curator: Mrs. Elena Sidorenko, independent curator

Artists: Vladimir Klimushko, Sergey Davidovich, Dmitry Zenkovich, Sergey Grinevich, Aleksander Grishkevich, Aleksander Shomov, Yuri Anushko, Viktor Minko, Konstantin Selikhanov, Tatjana Radzivilko , Natalia Pinevich, Viktoria Kovalenchikova, Katerina Sumareva, Elena Ivanova, Vera Osedovskaya, Vasily Peshkun, Anna Silivonchik , Roman Sustov , Aliona Volchok , Lubov Abramova

NO DISTANCE IN ART

When I was invited to become a curator of the Belarusian pavilion at the “Eastern Neighbours” exhibition, I asked myself, maybe for the first time so clearly, what is so specific in the Belarusian contemporary art? The answer was found easily – it is a classical background combined both with the cultural heritage of famous Russian and Soviet artists and rich national Belarusian traditions and folk lore. It should be also added that throughout the ages the Belarusian art has been experiencing strong cultural inf luence of its neighbours, as Belarus is situated on the cross-road between Europe and Russia.

In the context of modern art, which provokes experiments, the presented selection of paintings, graphics and sculptures will be called traditional . For many artists, the traditional realistic style still remains an actual means of esthetical and philosophic reflection, and characteristic figurative nature has a programmed character. The Belarusian art school is famous for its classical art education. Based on the classical traditions, later on artists can experiment, work in a pure formalism or make conceptual artworks. Freedom of self-expression appears as a result of having a profound basis, which means a classical school of education and selection. In the recent years the contemporary Belarusian art has demonstrated the withdrawal from the classical academic traditions. This withdrawal , however, is based on deep knowledge of these traditions.

In the last 15 years, many changes took place in Belarusian art. The most of them lay in the transition from ideological stereotypes to free artistic ideas and forms, in the changes of the plastic language, and in the prevailing of creativity over the depictiveness. The art has transformed from the socio-political sphere to historical and cultural ones. But the target remains the same – to bring an artist's idea to the audience to its maximal extent. Contemporary artists no longer address the collective memory and emotions of their generation as it was before, but the descriptive thinking of the audience. They gradually shifted from pure declarative imaging to the emotional and esthetical perception and the illusional representation of the reality.

The Belarusian artists presented at this exhibition work somewhere in between the figurative and abstracted forms, often combining abstract elements into figurative compositions.

Artists see the future not in time but in space, in movements over the borders and mutual migration. This new palette of globalized world becomes more and more obvious. The Belarusian artists have now a possibility to be free of the pressure of priorities and cultural stereotypes. This explains a de-politicization of the contemporary Belarusian art. Contemporary art becomes an alternative way of living and thinking, it belongs to the context of the European attitude to the world.

Elena Sidorenko, independent curator