Gene BY | Volha Savich

Gene BY | Volha Savich
Gallery Curators’LAB UAP, 12 Nowowiejskiego Str.
Curator: Ewelina Muraszkiewicz
Opening: 1.04.2025,  19:00
Duration of exhibition: 1-20.04.2025

Volha Savich is a resident of the PersPaktiv residency project. The project was created out of the need to support people from the broadly understood artistic community coming from Belarus. The situation in our eastern neighborhood  has led to an increase in migration in recent years. Artists who have experienced various types of repression, the inability to continue their artistic path, decide to leave the country. Being aware that the implementation of artistic work abroad (especially critical of the government) guarantees difficulties in returning to their homeland. The project supports accommodation in a new environment, allows residents to get acquainted with the artistic community to which they go. It guarantees time and space for development and creative work.

“Gene BY” is a project created using the paper transfer print technique. The artist obtained unique patterns by combining traditional Belarusian elements with photographs downloaded from the Internet. The photographs used show human figures without faces, as is usually the case in online services enabling buying and selling. The original function of presentation is reversed. Volha Savich focuses on anonymized people, not on the product. This is a starting point for considering the contemporary identity of the Belarusian nation. How has the perception itself changed in the context of political repression, the specter of war and constant fear. How do Belarusians see their identity while in exile, and how does this view shape those who remained in their homeland. How will all this affect national identity in the future? What does the return to tradition give in the context of changes?

The combination of the new, contemporary ornament with the traditional one creates sophisticated images that can be read on many levels. They attract and intrigue viewers, forcing them to stop and focus on the details. On the poster for the exhibition, we can most likely see three men in sports clothes, we can assume that they are quite young. They stand in an undefined space. Two of them face the viewer with their heads down. The third has his back to the people viewing the photograph. Who are they? At what point in their lives are they? We will not find out, we can explore and develop their story in any way we want. The trail is marked by Belarusian folk ornaments, which, it is worth noting, should have positive associations, so we will not find symbols with negative references in them. Will modernity add new meanings to their symbolism?

The PerspAKTIV project is carried out in cooperation with RAZAM, the Embassy of Culture and the Arsenał Municipal Gallery with financial support from the German Foreign Office #civilsocietycooperation