Belarus Free Theatre brings exile show to Venice

Belarus Free Theatre has opened “Official. Unofficial. Belarus.” in Venice, giving Belarus a Biennale presence through exiled artists rather than the state. (artnews.com) The exhibition is an official collateral event of the 61st Venice Biennale, with a pre-opening during vernissage week from May 6 to May 8 and a full run from May 9 to November 22. It is staged at La Chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista di Venezia, a church more than 1,000 years old. (artnews.com) (news.artnet.com) Belarus Free Theatre said the project is neither sponsored nor approved by the Belarusian government. Daniella Kaliada told ARTnews it is the first time Belarus has appeared at the Biennale “not as a state, but as a self-governing, self-authored cultural body.” (artnews.com) The show is built around how art is “made, censored, and experienced under authoritarian power and constant surveillance,” according to its organizers. Natalia Kaliada said the aim was not simply to explain repression, but to make visitors move through its sound, scent, obstruction and surveillance. (artnews.com) Inside the church, Sergey Grinevich’s site-specific paintings are installed like altar panels, while Olga Podgayskaya contributes an organ soundscape titled “Sounds of Silence.” Nicolai Khalezin adds a nearly nine-foot sphere of banned books compressed by a bulldozer claw. (artnews.com) Outside, Daniella Kaliada and Natalia Kaliada’s “Surveillance Crucifixion” turns a cross into a structure made entirely of closed-circuit television cameras. In the neighboring cemetery, Vladimir Tsesler shows large sculptures made from prison bars alongside recorded testimonies from recently released Belarusian political prisoners. (artnews.com) (news.artnet.com) The company has been in exile since 2020, after mass protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994. Its founders, Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin, sought political asylum in Britain in 2011. (artnews.com) (news.artnet.com) Belarus Free Theatre was founded in Minsk in 2005 and says it is the only theatre in Europe banned by its government on political grounds. The company has produced more than 50 stage works in more than 40 countries. (belarusfreetheatre.com) (news.artnet.com) This year’s Biennale opens on May 9 under the curatorial plan left by Koyo Kouoh, who died before the exhibition opened. Against that backdrop, Belarus arrives in Venice through an unofficial exhibition instead of a national pavilion. (theartnewspaper.com) (artnews.com) For Belarus Free Theatre, the point in Venice is representation as much as installation. The country is present, but the artists are making clear that the voice on view is exile culture, not the regime. (artnews.com)