The Belarusian pavilion in Venice is called one of the best this year. MANY PHOTOS from the opening
Among the guests were Viktar Babaryka and Maria Kalesnikava.
A week ago, the "Official. Unofficial. Belarus" pavilion opened at the 61st Venice Biennale. The project has already become one of the most notable and has been featured in reviews by foreign journalists and critics.
The Art Newspaper — an international art publication — called the Belarusian project the best "unofficial" pavilion in its selection (it takes place at the Biennale as a parallel event, as national pavilions can only be submitted through state structures). The publication emphasized that the exhibition from its first steps draws the viewer into the experience of censorship, surveillance, and loss of freedom: a field of wheat made with the participation of recent political prisoners, metal "spiders" from prison bars, the smell of a freshly dug grave in a rural cemetery, testimonies of political prisoners in the voices of Stephen Fry and Gillian Anderson, as well as a confessional where visitors are met by a face recognition system.
The project also caught the attention of ArtReview: the publication called it a dark and disturbing exhibition and specifically noted the cross made of CCTV cameras, the sphere of banned books, the works of Siarhei Hrynevich, and the confessional where the visitor simultaneously observes others and becomes an object of observation.
The Belarusian pavilion was also noted by the Financial Times newspaper, which called it one of the best pavilions at this year's Biennale.
The opening of "Official. Unofficial. Belarus" took place in the Church of Saint John the Evangelist — one of Venice's oldest spaces, founded back in the 1 3th century. For the project team, the location had fundamental significance. One of the project's curators, Daniela Koliada, emphasizes: today, meetings of the Venice Commission — the European Commission for Democracy through Law, established after the fall of the Berlin Wall — are held here. This is a space of European memory, law, and culture. And it is in such a space that the Belarusian voice has now resonated.
Koliada says that for the team, this year's participation in the Biennale was a way to show that Belarusian culture can be represented not only by ministries and state institutions. It can come to Venice through artists, theater, music, design, testimonies of political prisoners, and a community of people who have lost the ability to work freely at home.
The exhibition works as a multi-sensory experience. The viewer doesn't just see symbols of repression — they enter a space where control has form, smell, sound, and even taste. The cross of cameras reminds of surveillance, the sphere of books — of censorship, the smell of a grave — of death and suppressed memory, organ silence — of the fear of speaking aloud.
Opening of the Belarusian pavilion at the Venice Biennale
The scent for the exhibition was created by the Ukrainian studio ol.factory. The Art Newspaper describes it as the smell of "a warm August day in a small village cemetery with a freshly dug grave." The Guardian wrote even more harshly: it is the smell of a fresh grave in a Belarusian village at the end of August, with flowers already beginning to rot.
The sounds are no less powerful. The historical organ in the space was specially restored for Volha Padhaiskaya's new composition "The Sound of Silence." She performed it together with her husband, saxophonist Vital Apau, who himself went through a Belarusian isolation ward this year. The final chords of the pavilion's opening were the composition "Bach Plays in Minsk," which was played on one of Venice's two surviving organs.
One of the reasons the project received such attention is the participation of world-class actors. Testimonies of recently released Belarusian political prisoners in the exhibition are voiced by Gillian Anderson, Jude Law, Stephen Fry, and Joanna Lumley.
Gillian Anderson — the actress known for "The X-Files," "Sex Education," and "The Crown" — wrote on Instagram that she was proud to participate in the project and to lend her voice to the stories of recently released Belarusian political prisoners. According to her, these testimonies tell what it means to lose home and family, to rebuild oneself and try to create a new home in another country.
"Bringing the stories of these brave people to the world is vital," the actress noted.
Among the opening guests were Viktar Babaryka and Maria Kalesnikava, former political prisoner and businessman Aliaksandr Vasilevich, who owned the now-closed "Gallery Ў". On May 6, the exhibition was visited by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Also present at the opening were Sasha Waltz and Jochen Sandig — founders of the renowned Berlin company Sasha Waltz & Guests, one of Europe's important institutions for contemporary dance and performance.
Among the guests were also project participants: artists Uladzimir Tsesler and Siarhei Hrynevich, chef Rasmus Munk, as well as representatives of the international art scene.
According to Daniela Koliada, the exhibition was visited by journalists from The Independent, ARTnews, Financial Times, The Times, The New York Times, ArtReview, The Guardian, as well as representatives of the Lisson Gallery, David Zwirner Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Krupa Art Foundation, British Museum, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and Prada Foundation.
For a Belarusian independent project, this is a very high level of attention.
But for Daniela, the main thing was not just critical acclaim. She speaks of a feeling of a great Belarusian campaign. "We all desperately miss moments when we can genuinely be happy for each other, feel community, and at least for half a year have a place in Venice where other Belarusians can always come," she says.
According to Daniela, the Belarusian "unofficial pavilion" became important also because a place appeared in Venice where Belarusians can see themselves not only through trauma but also through achievement. This is the success of artists, musicians, theater, those who assembled installations in Warsaw, those who could not come to Venice due to documents, those who remained anonymous so as not to endanger loved ones in Belarus. This is the success of Belarusian culture, which after years of repression and exile still made it to one of the main world stages and was heard.
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Previously, Belarus participated in the Venice Biennale — in 2019, as well as in 2015 and 2009. Back then, the Belarusian pavilion was prepared by official structures: the Ministry of Culture, the National Center for Contemporary Arts, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Belarus in Italy. This current exhibition, however, was created by the team of the Belarus Free Theatre together with artists and composers.
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Comments
Ствараць новыя сэнсы ад беларусаў і для беларусаў — не.
Пабудаваць чарговы атракцыён для еўрапейцаў, каб яны маглі кайфануць, паказытаўшы сабе нэрвы, — так!
Якія там беларусы? Галоўнае ж — прызнанне ад Independent, ARTnews, Financial Times і купы фондаў. Новыя кантакты = новыя гранты = працяг гандлю чужым вопытам і імітацыяй думкі.
Затое можна з больш гламурным выглядам пафатаграфавацца з бакаламі, як у былыя часы ля галерэі Ў. Адчуць сябе сусветнай элітай, а не жмыхам усё прас**ўшых бязродных бамжоў.