Sunset over a Swamp
Installation. Propaganda newspapers. 2020 - 2022Mirror
Print-out on glass. 2020 - 2022DESCENT INTO THE MARSH
Günter Grass Gallery. Gdańsk, Poland
Sunset over a Swamp
It seemed to us in August 2020 that everything had changed; the people in the streets had changed and the state’s antiquated machinery was falling apart. We had no water, there were black-outs, and the underground was constantly breaking down. A rotten system was dying, everyone knew this too well. It was then that I started to build an archive of the propaganda press, believing these would the last papers printed by the regime. I planned to analyse them later.
There are no independent media in Belarus. They ceased to exist when Lukashenko gained power in 1994. By the end of 1994, Siarhiey Antonchyk, an MP in the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus, presented a report on corruption in the President’s circles. The report was not published but newspapers were issued with blank pages because the ban on printing it had been issued at the last minute. From that moment on, independent media were either liquidated or submitted to the control of the authorities and published only radical propaganda.
The installation makes references to the regime’s placing ornamental red and green flags along the streets of Minsk. The flag’s design was approved of during a rigged referendum, promoted by Lukashenko. This is not the national flag, there is no real idea behind it. It is a symbol of fear. The propaganda press is full of fear, hate and resentment.
There are no independent media in Belarus. They ceased to exist when Lukashenko gained power in 1994. By the end of 1994, Siarhiey Antonchyk, an MP in the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus, presented a report on corruption in the President’s circles. The report was not published but newspapers were issued with blank pages because the ban on printing it had been issued at the last minute. From that moment on, independent media were either liquidated or submitted to the control of the authorities and published only radical propaganda.
The installation makes references to the regime’s placing ornamental red and green flags along the streets of Minsk. The flag’s design was approved of during a rigged referendum, promoted by Lukashenko. This is not the national flag, there is no real idea behind it. It is a symbol of fear. The propaganda press is full of fear, hate and resentment.
Mirror
I made these screenshots in the summer of 2020 when the streets were full of people and anyone could view images streamed by the independent media, which had yet not been banned by the regime’s administration under the pretext of fighting extremism. The Internet signal was sometimes being disrupted, we could not see images but only hear voices – that we were tired with waiting and wanted to live in a normal state. In 9–12 August, the Internet was cut off in Belarus.
Günter Grass Gallery. Gdańsk, Poland
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