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26/1/2012

Sound of Silence

Efa Project Space, New York

curated by: Olga Kopenkina

Artists: antibrainwash.net, Alexander Komarov, Marina Naprushkina, Ales Pushkin, Sergey Shabohin, Yauheni Shadko, Lena Soulkovskaia, Oleg Yushko, group FAU

EFA Project Space presents Sound of Silence: Art During Dictatorship. Curated by Belarus-born Olga Kopenkina, this exhibition brings together nine of the most active Belarus artists and collectives, and their videos, posters, paintings and installations created in solidarity with recent popular protests.

Belarus President Lukashenka usurped governmental control seventeen years ago, and proceeded to turn Belarus, once culturally vibrant and working to reestablishing its national identity, into a repressed and stagnant dictatorship. In December 2010, accusations against falsified presidential elections brought rise to a wave of peaceful protests throughout the country, which were, in turn, unmercifully retaliated against by police and government forces.

Artists in Belarus joined the fast growing movement with new and bold actions that gained recognition throughout Europe despite the government's efforts to silence them. Today, many of these artists, who came of age under the dictatorship of Lukashenka, use their practice to challenge the status quo and contribute to the democratic movement, which expands far beyond their native land.

Sound of Silence is the first exhibition in New York City to survey the recent and powerful activities coming from this generation of Belarusian artists. It presents a range of installation, documentation and objects: from work generated by the collective www.antibrainwash.net, an artist-run activist website which features radical protest posters and materials that can be downloaded, printed and distributed; to Marina Naprushkina's constantly morphing installation "The Office of Anti-Propaganda," which presents images, objects, slogans and video footage exploring the illusory reality the Belarus government created through public campaign; to documentation of Ales Pushkin's outlandish staged performance confronting the cultural and political establishment that led him to immediate and constant arrest; to the Minsk-based group FAU's "Monopoly: The Belarusian Edition," addressing the dominance of economics over politics and culture, and allows game participants to assume the roles of government officials and win based on level of corruption; to Yauheni Shadko's expressionistic narrative paintings of recent political events.

EFA Project Space thanks both the Polish Cultural Institute for their support for Sound of Silence, and to the following individuals: Andreas Stadler (Austrian Cultural Forum); Jerzy Onuch (Polish Cultural Institute); Susan Kirby; Maureen Connor and Elaine Angelopoulos.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a panel discussion organized by the Polish Cultural Institute and curator Olga Kopenkina on Sunday, January 29 at 4 pm. Participants include artist Sergey Shabohin (Minsk, Belarus), curator Olga Kopenkina (New York), philosopher and cultural critic Nelly Bekus (Warsaw), and President of Youth Section of Belarusaiain-American Association Tatsiana Kulakevich (New York). Critic and President of AICA, Marek Bartelik, will moderate. The event will be held at the Austrian Cultural Forum at 5th Avenue and 52nd Street.

For press inquiries, please contact Michelle Levy at: michelle@efanyc.org

Image: Oleg Yushko, from the series "Implications," 2002-07

Openig: January 27, 6–8 pm

EFA Project Space
323 West 39 Street, 2nd Floor - NYC
Hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 12–6 pm

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