Yevgenia Belorusets

Christina’s day
ongoing // interrupted, 2018-2021, photo series

In her photographs, Yevgenia Belorusets focuses on the most vulnerable social groups, such as the Romani and the Sinti in the Donbas region. After separatists began occupying the Donbas in 2014, the Romani, such as lawyer and human rights activist Christina Belous, were forced to leave their homes. “In our courthouse, I was suddenly running into armed men whom I knew as convicted criminals,” recalls Christina. She and her sister quickly fled to Toretsk where they founded an organisation fighting for the rights of the Romani and the Sinti. Following Christina’s view on the situation of the Romani and the Sinti, Belorusets’ photographs attempt to capture not only human rights issues but also the topography of the Donbas, while documenting the twists and paradoxes of the every day and, above all, lending a voice to those who are not normally heard.

Yevgenia Belorusets is an artist and writer living and working in Berlin and partly Kyiv. She is the founder and editor of “Prostory”, the journal for literature and art, and a member of the curatorial group Hudrada. She works with photography and other forms at the intersection of art, literature, and social activism. Her photographic work was shown in the Ukrainian pavilion at the 56th and 59th Venice Biennale. Lucky Breaks, her first work of fiction, was given the 2020 HKW International Literature Award in Germany. For her work on War Diary, she received the 2022 Schering Stiftung Special Award for Artistic Research and the Horst Bingel Prize for Literature.

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Alina Bliumis

IN THE CENTRE OF EUROPE
2020, a series of 8 posters, each 72x100 cm
Installation view of Narrating Against the Grain, Kunstihoone, Tallinn, Estonia; curated by Corina L. Apostol
Photo by Paul Kuimet

Where does the heart of Europe lie? Determining the geographical centre of Europe is ambiguous due to factors such as the inclusion of certain islands and the determination of Europe's borders. At the Centre of Europe (2020) is a series of posters that explores Europe’s changing borders. Since 1775, cartographers have identified various places as the centre, including Suchowola in Poland, Kremnica in Slovakia, and a location in Ukraine. Following a reassessment in 1989, the centre was placed near Purnuškės in Lithuania. Other claims include Tállyu in Hungary, Lake Sho in Belarus, and Mõnnuste in Estonia. Each claim reflects national politics and historical changes, indicating that while the power centre of Europe is in the West, the geographical centre is much further east.

Alina Bliumis (b. Minsk, Belarus) is New York-based artist who received her BFA from the School of Visual Art in 1999 and a diploma from the Advanced Course in Visual Arts in Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy in 2005. Her works are in various private and public collections, including MAC VAL, France; Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia; Bat Yam Museum for Contemporary Art, Israel; The Saatchi Collection, UK; The Harvard Business School, USA; The National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia; and Missoni Collection, Italy.


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Paul Chaney

Donetsk Syndrome Diagrammatic
2011 to present day

The large-scale, handmade Donetsk Syndrome Diagrammatic ties together artistic aspects and results of the research process. On this diagram dedicated to the Donetsk region, one can follow a timeline of the 13.8 billion years of cosmic and geological development that led to the formation of one the region’s richest mineral resources. Human presence represents but a very short period on the timeline. The year 1870, when mining of this mineral wealth began, kicked off an era of an industrial metropolis populated by dispossessed immigrants. Because of the mineral wealth, this area has been at war four times since 1917. The identity crisis of the largely immigrant population subsequently enabled Russian infiltration and destabilisation, which has led to the current state of war.

Paul Cheney (*1974, United Kingdom) is an artist and researcher who lived in Donetsk 2011-2014, where he began working on the diagram about the geological and industrial development of this area. In his work he also brings to bear his great interest in ecology and agriculture, experimenting with low-carbon living and developing software programmes that are able to determine the best method for restoring nature and producing food for any local condition. He has exhibited at Bergen Kunsthalle, at Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź and at Tranzitdisplay in Prague.


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Soso Dumbadze

A Yellow Bus
pp. 30-31, Soso Dumbadze, 15-channel video installation, 16:9, 17:53 min., 2017
Courtesy the artist

On May 17, 2013, during the International Day Against Homophobia, a fanatical crowd of thousands, led by an Orthodox priest, attacked a group of forty citizens peacefully demonstrating for LGBT rights in Tbilisi. The demonstrators had to flee into the yellow city buses but even there, they were not safe. The aggression with which the crowd attacked the small group surprised both the protesters and the police. Soso Dumbadze created an installation, consisting of fifteen monitor screens, from footage recorded by journalists, agents of violence and those threatened. Five years later, in 2018, he planned to present this installation at the exact location where the demonstration took place, to commemorate the event. However, due to the threat of renewed attacks by fanatical crowds it was held under the protection of about 100 policemen.

Soso Dumbadze, born 1981 in Tbilisi, graduated from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He was awarded a PhD by the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. He is a professor at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs. His works were presented at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Art Cologne. His films have been screened at IDFA, Dok-Leipzig, First Look NYC. 2006 he founded »Sa.Ga. Publishing for Society« publishing authors such as Walter Benjamin, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Harun Farocki. He lives in Tbilisi.