Monday, 13 April 2009
The exhibition “Art against Dictatorship” continues to travel to museums across the USA. We would remind you that the exhibition has been displayed in the Estonian parliament in Tallinn, at the headquarters of the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington D.C. and Belarusian Museum of New York earlier.
This time the exhibition was hosted by the Fund for American Studies in Washington D.C. The event was met with considerable interest by college students from all over the world engaged in various educational programs of TFAS.
The exhibition presents works by Ales Shaternik, Ales Marachkin, Mikola Kupava, Rygor Batalionak, Genadz Drazdou, Yury Platonau, Yanka Romanovitch, Yelena Tylkina and Julia Shaternik. The cardinal concept of the exhibition is to bring the ideas of struggle for freedom and democracy against dictatorship still existing in present times through the power of Art.
Matthew Kwasiborski, the Prague Programs Director for the Fund for American Studies opened the reception and reviewed the political situation in Belarus, difficulties Belarusian artists-democrats facing back home. He also introduced the programs and events launched by the Fund for American Studies.
Subsequently took the floor the Belarusians, representatives of the Belarusian Museum of New York: famous art critic Alexander Glezer, artist Ales Shaternik. Ales pointed out the significance of Art in fight for Democracy and defined the most prominent paintings on display such as “Cain and Abel”, “The Wall” and others. He also reminded about our famous fellow-countryman Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the national hero of America, whose monument was erected in this country in Washington D.C.
Alexander Glezer was also reflecting on free art, he shared his difficult and interesting life story and. Alexander Glezer made attempts to organize informal art exhibitions in Soviet times. But the events did not last longer than 15 minutes as they were closed by KGB. Glezer turned his own flat into a private show-room. In 1974 Glezer was forced to leave for France but he was lucky to keep a lot of art works. In Montgeron near Paris he opened The Museum of Contemporary Russian Art (MoCRA), now the museum is located in the USA
In conclusion a young talented artist Julia Shaternik thanked those present for showing great interest in the exhibition and support in its organization.
The organizers of the event are Belarusian Museum in New York and the Third Way community, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), German Marshall Fund of the United States, Estonian Valgevene Uus Tee NGO, Open Estonia Foundation and other partner organizations.
