Curator: Catherina Visconti, Simon Mraz, Valentina Kiseleva, Anna Chistoserdova  

Artists: Sergey Zhdanovich, Alexei Lunev, Zhanna Gladko, Denis Limonov, Sergey Shabokhin, A.R.Ch., Ksenia Sorokina

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Already more than 20 years have passed since a new image appeared on the geopolitical map: Belarus. Yet the culture of this nation at the center of the European continent remains a mystery to the West as well as to the East. Over the decades, the enigmatic political situation within the coutry has given way to a stereotype that Belarussian art, like the nation, is closed to the outside world, with artists either abstractly reflecting on the theme of their own identity or agressively resisting the domestic political environment.

That is precisely why the exhibition »Belarus – Young Contemporary Art«, organised by Austrian Embassy cultural attaché Simon Mraz as part of the sixth festival of contemporary art collecions in Moscow in collaboration with Belarussian curators Valentina Kiselyova and Anna Chistoserdova from the »Ў« Contemporary Art Gallery, sets out to not only premiere works by young Belorussian artists in Moscow but, more importantly, to shatter the stigma that isolates Belorussian contemporary art from the international art scene. Despite the borders that enclose Belarus, the works of its artists through the universal language of contemporary art raise topics that are relevant to the entire world.

The exhibition features five artists from the »Ў« Gallery. Simon Mraz, by proposing to hold an exhibition in his apartment, presented a unique opportuniy to see, in actuality, how contemporary art fits into the interior of a living quarters (would it create harmony or dissonance?) and to eludicate the global character of contemporary Belorussian art.

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This text has been adapted from an interview with curator Tatiana Artimovich