An exhibition of Belarusian posters, entitled “Visual Code of the Time: Post-Soviet Poster Art in Belarus”, opened in Dresden’s Aquarium Club yesterday. The travelling exhibition is organised by the Office for a Democratic Belarus (Brussels) and the Belarusian Union of Designers with the support of the Bratislava office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Robert Bosch Stiftung.
Once again the event attracted the attention of a wide range of visitors which demonstrates the universal character of the themes used by Belarusian masters of poster design. The different perspectives that viewers have on the displayed works have naturally given rise to different interpretations and opinions. As the exhibition is being seen by audiences in various countries across the European Continent, the analytical angle that has initially been formed by the artists is therefore also widening.
One Spanish visitor pointed out that the presented works fundamentally transform the widely held view in Western Europe that Soviet posters were merely instruments of the state propaganda machine. On the contrary, Belarusian posters of the Perestroika period have encouraged the Soviet people to broaden their outlook and to cast off the blinkers of traditional Soviet ideology.
Alongside the exhibition a series of other events on Belarus are taking place as part of Rock4Peace Festival organised by Dresden’s Kultur Aktiv. Besides the exhibition, which runs at the Aquarium Club (St. Petersburger Str.21 D - 01069 Dresden) until the end of November, there will be the screening of a documentary film, ‘For Freedom 1…2…3’, the reading of Artur Klinau’s novel ‘Minsk. The Sun City of Dreams’, and the concert of ‘Dzhambimbum music band.
The Office for a Democratic Belarus expresses its gratitude to the Aquarium Club, Kultur Aktiv and all other partners that helped make this project possible.
