Official. Unofficial. Belarus.

The exhibition, titled “Official. Unofficial. Belarus.,” is a group show presenting work by Belarusian artists who works challenge the long-standing authoritative regime in their native country. About New paintings by Sergey Grinevich will fill the exhibition’s main venue, the Venetian church of San Giovanni Evangelista. Conceived and displayed like altarpieces, these works will use religious iconography to comment on contemporary threats to our privacy. Other site-specific works also play with the sacred location. Nicolai Khalezin‘s installation of a book display crushed by a bulldozer is a explicit comment on the perniciously destructive erasure of art in Belarus, such that the spectrum of ideas becomes gradually narrowed over time. The area immediately surrounding the church will also be taken over by the Belarusian artists. Just outside the entrance, viewers will become the viewed when they pass by Surveillance Crucifixion, a cross constructed out of CCTV cameras by Daniella Kaliada and Natalia Kaliada. The work plays on a disquieting sense that there are increasingly few places still scared from institutional attempts to observe and control. The church’s neighboring private cemetery is the site of new sculptural works made from prison bars by Vladimir Tsesler, as well as a sound installation featuring testimonials by political prisoners who have recent served time in Belarus. Founded in Minsk in 2005, Belarus Free Theatre is a critically-acclaimed performance non-profit that has produced more than 50 stage productions across more than 40 countries. Its two founders Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin sought political asylum in Britain in 2011, in recent years they hosted acting classes for Belarusian and Ukranian refugees in Warsaw. Their exhibition is one of the Biennale’s 30 official collateral events. It remains on view for the Biennale’s full run from May 9 through November 22. Read more Toggle Painting Performance / Live Art Film / Video Multi-disciplinary