Voices
Exhibition: december, 2020
OP ENHEIM, Wroclaw, Poland
Patricipants: Iwona Ogrodzka, Weronika Surma, Liliana Zeic, Alicja Kielan, Reinan, Magdalena Kreis, Jagoda Dobecka, Joanna Kobyłt, Katarzyna Roj, Ania Krukowska, Anna Maria Łozińska, Alesia Zhitkevich, Antonina Slobodchikova, Ilona Dziarhach, Inga Lindorenko, Katsiaryna Pashkevich, Masha Gulina, Olia Sosnovskaya, Vasilisa Palianina, Vika Biran, Tatiana Kandracienka, Nadya Sayapina
It is becoming more and more difficult for us to follow the passage of time, since the rigging of the presidential election by Alexander Lukashenka. Counting days turned into counting months. Observing the situation from a distance, we admire the solidarity, perseverance and courage of citizens fighting against the regime. I am from Belarus myself. I lived in Minsk for a long time, and all the current developments in this country are especially close to me.
The revolution is the power of the crowd — hundreds of thousands of protesters. Recently, we have witnessed mass protests also in Poland related to the fight for women’s rights and general opposition to the actions of the authorities. Our actions have something in common – The Revolution is a Woman. Both in Belarus and Poland.
A month and a half ago, I asked a few female friends from Belarus: female artists, cultural workers, activists, some of whom I met through correspondence, to write a letter. I asked gently, because I did not know what they felt and whether they would like to write back to me, or whether they would like to tell anything at all.
All the letters are very touching, but there is something in common in all of the statements. They talk about fear, violence and a sense of solidarity. I thank them for having the strength to act. For the fact that they have the courage and the power to talk about what is happening now and that they were able to collect and convey all their emotions in the form of a letter.
It is especially important to me that the words of my friends from Belarus can be re-enacted by my friends from Poland, who are also active in the field of culture and art here. They share common interests, but are separated by distance. Although these women have never met, these texts have created an unexpected bond between them, on an essentially personal level. I know how difficult it can be these days. And I am grateful for this experience.
To summarize the project, I would like to share with you the shortest but most concentrated letter that, to now, has become incredibly important:
I don’t think the pain of what goes far away is any less so we all walk down this corridor transformation as much as we can. I really want to believe that it will all fall apart soon – not in a year, not in a year two years when the wounds of the nation will be incurable.
Masha Maroz
The revolution is the power of the crowd — hundreds of thousands of protesters. Recently, we have witnessed mass protests also in Poland related to the fight for women’s rights and general opposition to the actions of the authorities. Our actions have something in common – The Revolution is a Woman. Both in Belarus and Poland.
A month and a half ago, I asked a few female friends from Belarus: female artists, cultural workers, activists, some of whom I met through correspondence, to write a letter. I asked gently, because I did not know what they felt and whether they would like to write back to me, or whether they would like to tell anything at all.
All the letters are very touching, but there is something in common in all of the statements. They talk about fear, violence and a sense of solidarity. I thank them for having the strength to act. For the fact that they have the courage and the power to talk about what is happening now and that they were able to collect and convey all their emotions in the form of a letter.
It is especially important to me that the words of my friends from Belarus can be re-enacted by my friends from Poland, who are also active in the field of culture and art here. They share common interests, but are separated by distance. Although these women have never met, these texts have created an unexpected bond between them, on an essentially personal level. I know how difficult it can be these days. And I am grateful for this experience.
To summarize the project, I would like to share with you the shortest but most concentrated letter that, to now, has become incredibly important:
I don’t think the pain of what goes far away is any less so we all walk down this corridor transformation as much as we can. I really want to believe that it will all fall apart soon – not in a year, not in a year two years when the wounds of the nation will be incurable.
Masha Maroz