Thursday, 12 June 2008
On June 11 in the Estonian parliament an exhibition of Belarusian artists "Art against dictatorship" began. The authors of the exhibition are not only such famous Belarusian artists like Ales Marachkin and Ales Shaternik, who have been persecuted by the Belarusian authorities for their views.
Their works are exhibited in Tretyakovsky gallery and the White House. There are also young artists, who think differently, than the current Belarusian regime wants them to, who want to have not only the freedom of work, but freedom of life in their country.
In the exhibition there are works of Belarusian artists Ales Shaternik, Ales Marachkin, Yury Platonau, Yanka Romanovitch and Julia Shaternik. They all are members of the art group "Pahonia", which is well known by its adherence to the ideas of democracy and national revival of Belarus. That is why the Belarusian authorities hate it.
The exhibition is put-up for presentation of the Alternative Belarus, country with deep historical traditions and European culture, with its creative elite, who is not ready to agree with the current order of things in the country. That Belarus was always a part of European cultural space.
The exhibition was open by the vise speaker of Estonian Parlament Kristiina Ojuland. She expressed gratitude and support to the Belarusan cultural workers for what they are doing in order to preserve vational culture of Belarus. Such faimous people as worker of art Ales Shaternik and politician Zianon Pazniak participated in the opening of the exhibition. There were also Estonian parliamentarians, social figures and journalists.
The exhibition was organized by the Estonian non-government organization "Valgevene uus tee" in cooperation with the association «The third way» and Belarusian Museum in New York with the support of the Estonian parliament and fund «Open Estonia ».