Minsk before the elections: We defy the drabness of the time

the new President of Belarus after the elections on may 9. August will be the same, namely, Aleksandr Lukashenka, has questioned these days, no one in the capit

Minsk before the elections: We defy the drabness of the time

the new President of Belarus after the elections on may 9. August will be the same, namely, Aleksandr Lukashenka, has questioned these days, no one in the capital, Minsk, which, despite its two million inhabitants is not only consistently excellent, but as is almost always the strange blank looks. The most promising Challenger Lukaschenkas, Viktor Babariko, long-time Director of Belgasprombank, sits in prison, as well as the Blogger Sergei Tichanowsky, wanted to run. Therefore, will now take his wife, Svetlana Tichanowskaja for the Opposition. But society will change, assured the Director of the Goethe-Institute in Minsk, Jakob Racek, of the remained during the of Lukashenka ostentatiously ignored pandemic in the city. Racek, we meet in a cafe, what impressed us most was founded, as an entrepreneur, especially in the IT sector, the Initiative "BY Covid 19", money collected, protective equipment for medical professionals bought, and especially to the Province of hospitals distributed. The civil society has grown in the crisis, as Racek. As the Belarusian philosopher Valentin Akudowitsch he is convinced that the country in which the Belarusian language continues to have a niche status, it was never a fixer-upper in the sense of a national project such as the Ukraine, but only by the self-organization of free and self-confident citizens.

Such a one encounters in the October road, a former industrial area with a tram depot, which has established itself as a centre of free cultural scene with Local and shops. Live music is played from a backyard, passers-by wearing multi-coloured, with smiley faces or "I love BY", decorated face masks. A Flaneur is committed by his T-Shirt with the lettering "psychosis 3%" than the opposition. The inscription quoted Lukashenka, who dismissed the Corona pandemic as a "psychosis", to suggest at the same time, really "psychotic" fear his low support in the population, an oppositional news portal stood at three percent. Real surveys on the topic are forbidden.

No help from state structures

We are the art gallery Y, probably the most important in Belarus, whose leader Anna Tschistoserdowa with international partners, through ignorance elusive audience in gently with the languages of contemporary art and the art scene of Minsk with a developed visit. At the beginning of the pandemic, as museums and Theater open remained, said Tschistoserdowa all of the projects, leaving your staff only work from home and the gallery exhibited the rooms in the Initiative "BY Covid 19" available.

Tschistoserdowa welcomes us in a pink robe to defy "the drabness of the time," she says. Still medical boxes stacked in the gallery, on the walls of country cards on which delivery are to be signed in hospitals. In addition, the independent project "Artonist", where artists and art lovers to organize has launched a Crowdfunding campaign to support cultural institutions and artists in Need. Of state structures, no help is to be expected. Their own fears of existence Tschistoserdowa don't want to talk, you have no desire to be afraid constantly. However, you should be proud of their fellow citizens. The Belarusians have proven successful in the difficult period really. Their first exhibition after the pandemic would like to dedicate Tschistoserdowa the heroes of the Corona of the time, the title is: "Touching distance".

Also the curator of the confiscated art collection of Belgasprombank, Alexander Zimenko produced, is allowed. Zimenko produced receives us in the "Palace of arts", where the works of artists from Belarus, which were outside of their country famous, were up the previous month available to the public. The former Bank chief Babariko had tracked down over the years, the Work of Chaim Soutine, Léon Bakst, Marc Chagall, Ossip Zadkine on the international art market and purchased. As Babariko was arrested, were also seized from the pictures. The presidential candidate did you want out of your country, the little plausible allegation of the guards.

Date Of Update: 29 July 2020, 05:20