The travelling exhibition of Belarusian posters, “Visual Code of the Time: Post-Soviet Art in Belarus”, has arrived in Belgium. The exhibition that features works of the country’s 19 leading masters of poster has opened in Brussels’ Aula Toots gallery on 15 January.
The residents and guests of the European capital attending the exhibition on the first night had the opportunity to meet the chairman of the Belarusian Union of Designers, Dzmitry Surski, and a member of the Union and designer, Tatsyana Hardashnikava.
In his opening speech, Mr Surski noted that the works presented in this exhibition are part of a larger collection of over 1000 posters dating from the Perestroika era to the present day. In selecting works, the curators of the exhibition wanted to acquaint the Western public with the most important works of Belarus’ prominent masters. Many of these works received critical acclaim and awards in international competition and are now on display in museums and galleries throughout the world.
Mr Surski also explained the significant role that this flexible and powerful medium played in late Soviet and contemporary art of the country. For Surski, and for many of his contemporaries, something that had started many years ago as a hobby had become an important, and often the only, way of expression.
The opening of the exhibition was followed by a reception during which the visitors had a chance to address their questions to Dzmitry Surski and Tatsyana Hardashnikava. The organisers also presented the 2nd edition of a catalogue accompanying the travelling exhibition that features 44 reproductions of Belarusian posters with explanatory texts in the English, French, Italian, and Belarusian languages.
The Office for a Democratic Belarus extends its gratitude to Administration Communale d’Evere, Curieus Evere, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the German Marshall Fund of the United States and all the partners that helped make this project possible.