Resources for Researchers and Educators
This page offers a directory of resources for the study of Belarusian contemporary art. With the absence of a domestic centralized art archive, the platforms listed below function as the repositories of knowledge about contemporary art in the country.
ART–BELARUS is a national, historical, and cultural project created with the support of Belgazprombank. It is the website of the Art-Belarus Gallery (3 Kazlou St, Minsk) with additional sections that feature the Belgazprombank corporate collection, new acquisitions, and artists’ portfolios: http://www.artbelarus.by/.
ART KURATOR is an independent platform containing information about Belarusian contemporary and figurative art and artists and curators who are affiliated with Belarusian–German cultural exchanges. The website lists the Goethe Institute as one of its partners: http://artkurator.com/en/.
ART AKTIVIST is the research platform for Belarusian contemporary art, which was launched by Siarhei Shabokhin and existed from 2011 to 2014. It exists today as the online archival repository from this period: http://artaktivist.org/.
ARTONIST is an educational project founded by Volha Mzhelskaya, Iryna Lukashenka, Bazinato, and Ana Lok. It features information about art tours, meetings and interviews with artists, lectures and public talks, and information about residencies: http://www.artonist.org/.
CHRYSALIS MAG is an online magazine of contemporary Belarusian art founded in 2020 and curated by graphic artist Nadzeya Makeyeva. The magazine’s goals are to popularize Belarusian art within the country and abroad and create an online forum for communication for both a general audience and professionals alike: https://chrysalismag.by/.
CULTPROTEST.ME is an online Belarusian protest art initiative by Maxim Tyminko (the Netherlands) and Siarhei Shabokhin (Germany) aimed at the free dissemination of protest visuals: https://cultprotest.me/.
KALEKTAR is an online research platform for Belarusian contemporary art founded in 2015 by Aliaksei Barysionak, Siarhei Kiriushchanka, and Siarhei Shabokhin. The sphere of Kalektar’s research interests includes performance, actionism, and installations. Zbor, one of Kalektar’s central projects, represents a collection of essays dedicated to contemporary Belarusian art: http://kalektar.org/.
MART is a project dedicated to chronicling the history of contemporary Belarusian art founded by Dzmitryi Padluzhny in 2013. Its goals include providing information about contemporary Belarusian art, facilitating the local development of art criticism, and integrating contemporary Belarusian art into global networks: http://www.mart.by/.
MASTACTVA is a monthly magazine founded by the Belarusian Ministry of Culture in 1983. It is dedicated to visual art, theater, and cinema: http://www.kimpress.by/mastactva.
PARTISAN is a print almanac of contemporary Belarusian culture founded by Artur Klinau in 2002. The journal focuses on Belarusian culture in its entirety. All in all, thirty-five issues were published since 2002: http://partisanmag.by/.
Ў GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART is a central institution of contemporary art that operated in Minsk from 2009 to 2020. Its founders and partners include Valiantsina Kisialiova, Hanna Chystaserdava, Aliaksandr Vasilevich, and Nadzeia Zeliankova. The gallery’s website features artists’ portfolios and information about exhibitions: https://en.ygallery.by/.
WIR is a journal of Belarusian and world culture aimed at overcoming the country’s cultural isolation and integrating it into the global context. Launched in 2018, the website contains the following sections: literature, history, art, linguistics, mythology, and cinema: https://wir.by.