Современное белорусское визуальное искусство 90-ых годов (EN).

Over the last ten years, contemporary art in Belarus has been developing in polemic with the state monopoly on defining artistic values, as well as in the struggle for legitimization of independent artistic environments.

The period of 1987–1991 can be seen as a time of active display of new Belarusian art. A series of exhibitions—Perspective, Panorama, Form, Belart and others—organised by spontaneously formed and short-lived artists’ associations such as Pluralis, Galina, Forma, Komi-Kon, Blo, and Kvadrat, demonstrated art reminiscent of the new wild movement or inspired by the Russian avant-garde of the Vitebsk period (1919–1922). The most influential artists from that time include Igor Kashkurevich, Liudmila Rusova, Alexey Zhdanov, Gennady Khatskievich, Olga Sazykina, Artur Klinov, and Viktor Pietrov.

At the same time, Belarusian photography, which had previously been considered applied art, was firmly established as a fully-fledged form of contemporary visual art. From 1987 to 1991, informal creative associations of self-taught photographers like Pravintsyia, Meta, Bielaruski Klimat, and Panorama shaped the Belarusian artistic landscape. It was these neophyte associations whose members were invited by Finnish curators Hannu Eerikainen and Taneli Eskola to participate in the major travelling exhibition The New Soviet Photography (1988–1990, Denmark, Sweden, Finland). Belarusian participants included Alexander Uglianitsa, Victor Kalenik, Valery Lobko, Uladzimir Parfianok, and Mikhail Garus.

In 1990, Minsk photoartists were involved in the American exhibition-publishing project Photo Manifesto. The Contemporary Photography in the USSR, initiated by the New York-based gallery Walker, Ursitti & McGinniss. Variants of the exhibition were shown in Baltimore (1990), New York (1991), and Houston (1992). In 1991, the publishing house Stewart, Tabori & Chang released an album under the same title, analyzing new tendencies in Soviet photography through the lens of the Minsk school represented by Igor Savchenko, Sergey Kozhemiakin, Galina Moskaleva, Vladimir Shakhlevich, Valery Lobko, Alexey Pavluts’, Uladzimir Parfianok, Sergey Sukovitsyn, and others. After the disintegration of the USSR, a period of autonomous development of Belarusian photography began. The most productive year, 1994, was marked by influential exhibitions such as Art of Contemporary Photography. Russia. Ukraine. Belarus (Moscow), New Belarusian Photography (Sopot, Poland), and Photography from Minsk(Berlin, Germany), organized with support from foreign art institutions.

In the 1990s, Belarus saw the erosion of boundaries between official and underground art, between expensive exhibition practices and radical artistic gestures, and between art and life, where art was not declared a sacral zone nor treated as a unique object to be preserved in museums. Art as a phenomenon transformed into the phenomenon of the art system. Belarusian creative practice became enriched by project-based work, institutional or personal, as an expression of existential experience. Institutional projects were largely abortive: the state could not provide infrastructure for contemporary art, no special foundations supported artists, and programs of “old” state institutions like the Belarusian Academy of Arts, the National Art Museum of Belarus, the Union of Artists of Belarus, and the Ministry of Culture did not meet the real needs of contemporary artistic practice. Although there was a plan to create a Centre of Contemporary Arts in Minsk, it was never realized. The recently founded Museum of Contemporary Art reflects an official approach, guided by Soviet academic values, disregarding international artistic practices. No professional school for curators exists, so large-scale state-initiated projects (e.g., the International Plein-Air dedicated to Marc Chagall in Vitebsk) cannot be considered significant on a European scale. The only art magazine, Mastatstva (Art), sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, cannot be regarded as independent. Its low print quality and heterogeneous content prevent comparison with influential European art publications.

Significant contemporary art events in Belarus usually take place in independent communicative spaces, non-commercial galleries, and exhibition halls of cultural institutions such as libraries, educational establishments, and theatres. The contemporary art scene has worked to establish these spaces as artistic institutions. The annual exposition In-formation in Vitebsk, held at the non-commercial gallery Solianyie Sklady since 1994, is an example of this practice. Independent galleries in Minsk—The Sixth Line (Polytechnical Academy), NOVA (Central Public Library), A.V. (Volnaia Stsena theatre), and U Maistra (Grodno)—have hosted the most innovative and experimental projects, including The New Banknotes. The Belarusian Realism by Timofey Tmin, The Death of The Pioneer (III) by Artur Klinov, performance weeks at The Sixth Line gallery, Sequenda by Nadezhda Korotkina, Konstantin Sielikhanov, Igor Zasimovich, and Uladzimir Parfianok, Behind the Banality by Igor Savchenko and Nadezhda Korotkina, and group projects Photography from Minsk (II), The Field of GRAVity. Artists Against AIDS, The Self-portrait of The Other, The Photographer and The Word, The Closed Book, Liebschaft, and Todesschaft.

The practical activity of non-commercial associations and galleries is hampered by a lack of financial support from the state and private business. As a result, commercial galleries are nearly absent in Belarus. There is no tradition of investing in contemporary art, nor a culture of sponsorship, and no laws provide tax incentives for philanthropy or support for cultural events. The economic situation for Belarusian artists is complicated, with potential further deterioration, especially for young, freelance, or independent artists, due to decreased western capital and political uncertainty.

The Belarusian Soros Foundation, which supported contemporary art development, was closed under pressure from authorities. Today, foreign cultural institutions in Minsk, such as the Goethe-Institut and the Instytut Polski, are the main partners in realizing projects, supporting initiatives like Photography from Minsk (II), The Echo of Silence(dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe), Texts (Belarusian-German project), Traditions and Experiments (Polish-Belarusian project), and The Kingdom of Belarus (travelling exhibition in Poland). Under these conditions, personal artistic projects act as private self-financed institutions with their own archives and exhibition spaces.

Artists transform their real existence into the material of art: Timofey Izotov, Artur Klinov, Igor Kashkurevich, Igor Tishin, and Vitaly Rozhkov use autobiographical and psycho-somatic experiences; Ludmila Rusova and Olga Sazykina explore communication and human relations as artistic and existential themes. Despite the lack of infrastructure, curators such as Michal Barazna, Dmitry Korol, Andrey Varabiou, Nadezhda Korotkina, Irina Bigday, Olga Kopenkina, Uladzimir Parfianok, and Andrey Dureiko, along with freelance critics Nadezhda Korotkina, Olga Kopenkina, Yuras’ Barysievich, Olga Kovalenko, Nelli Bekus, Alexander Davydchyk, and Dmitry Korol, actively shape the contemporary Belarusian art scene.

Uladzimir Parfianok.
Olga Kopenkina.