BY NOW: Contemporary Photography from Belarus
October 3, 2014–January 18, 2015
ifa-Gallery Berlin
Linienstraße 139/140
10115 Berlin
Germany
The exhibition BY NOW: Contemporary Photography from Belarus, curated by Matthias Harder, is focused on new developments in photography in Belarus, a region which seems to be a blank spot on the map nowadays. However, in the historic fabric of the Soviet Union, located between the Baltic States, Poland, Russia and Ukraine and even after 1989, it was not an unknown area which it has become since then. Outside of the country there is a vague and clichéd image of Belarus as an autocratically governed state. Nevertheless, the younger generation seems not to be affected by the attempts of intimidation by the government. And the young creatives, among them also photographers, comment visually on the current situation in their country with a new way of seeing, humour and in some cases with challenging impudence or portray contemporaries in different situations of their everyday life. They realize topics chosen by themselves with an individual photographic style and intuition, ranging from classic black and white portraits to Photoshop experiments with garish colours. Already in 1994 in the exhibition Photography in Minsk, the ifa-gallery Berlin presented some of the artistic positions of the scene of photographers working in Minsk at the time. Twenty years later it is apparent that even though there is seclusion and isolation, a new, young scene of photographers has emerged who deal creatively with their everyday life and who receive information regarding the current situation as well as the past from the internet.
The ifa-gallery and the exhibition are taking part in the 6th European Month of Photography Berlin (16 October–16 November), this year dealing with the subject Upheavals and Utopias. The other Europe.
Participating photographers:
Eugene Kanaplev-Leydik, Julia Leydik-Kanapleva, Aleksey Naumchik, Aleksei Shinkarenko, Mikhail Leschenko, Maxim Shumilin, Volga Sasnoukaya, Alexandra Soldatova, Alexander Sayenko, Siarhei Hudzilin, Andrei Liankevich, Alexander Kladov, Tanya Haurylchyk, Aleksaner Veledzimovich, Pavel Kirpikau, Paulina Palynskaya
A publication accompanying the exhibition is published by Kehrer.
