Art against dictatorship

An exhibition of Belarusian artists “Art against Dictatorship” was opened in the Estonian Parliament last week.

The authors of the exhibition are not only famous Belarusian artists as Ales Marachkin and Ales Shaternik, whose works are in Tretyakov Gallery and the White House. The authors are also young artists, who have different from the dictated by the Belarusian regime thoughts. They wish there were freedom of artistic creativity and freedom of life in the country.

Works by Ales Shaternik, Ales Marachkin, Yury Platonau, Yanka Ramanovich and Yulya Shaternik are presented at the exhibition. They are members of the creative group “Pahonya” (Chase), which is famous for commitment to the ideas of democracy and national revival of Belarus, being out of favour of the Belarusian authorities for that reason.

The exhibition was organised for presentation of the alternative Belarus, a country with deep historical traditions and European culture, creative elite, who doesn’t want to comply with the existing situation, with the Belarus, which has always been a part of the European cultural environment.

The exhibition was opened by Mrs Kristiina Ojuland, Vice Speaker of the Parliament of Estonia. She thanked the Belarusian artist for their contribution in the Belarusian national culture preserving and expressed her support in their actions. Famous cultural figure Ales Shaternik and politician Zyanon Paznyak took part in the opening ceremony. Estonian MPs, public figures and journalists were present at the opening.

The exhibition was organised by Valgevene uus tee civil organisation together with the Third Way group and the Belarusian Museum in New York with the assistance of the Parliament of Estonia and Open Estonia foundation.