A round table “Results of 2023: bright events, trends, forecasts” was held in the Hall of the Belarusian Council for Culture
Coordinator of the Belarusian Council for Culture Nadzeya Haretskaya, theater critics Nastaśsia Pankratava and Dzianis Marcinovič during the discussion
Invited speakers – experts in music, literature, theatre, cinema – summed up the results of 2023, which has almost remained in history. They also made future plans for the sphere of culture.
The head of the Belarusian Council for Culture, Siarhiej Budkin, in his welcoming speech, among other highlights of this year’s work of the council, outlined one very significant trend that we have witnessed – the consolidation of the expert community in the field of culture:
“For the second year, our analytical group has been monitoring trends in various spheres of culture and preparing periodic reviews that can be found on our website and Telegram channel. We built a network of experts who evaluated the applications of creators for the ArtPower Belarus programme. A total of 35 experts worked with us this year. We also contributed to the creation of four expert and professional communities.
Together with experts and representatives of various partner organizations, the Belarusian Council for Culture prepared a road map for the European Commission in the maintenance and development of Belarusian culture, which was presented in Brussels. This is a proposal to Europe’s largest donor regarding directions, priorities and volumes of aid in the field of culture.
We are also preparing lists of public experts in each of the spheres of culture for the media with the hope that the topic of culture will be heard even more in the infospace.
After all, culture is not about ideological service, not about a museum and not about entertainment.
Culture is the engine of changes in society and the foundation of our independence.”
Content
Cinema: attempts to unite, the search for a format for a promising work and the long list of “Oscar”
Literature: international solidarity, the audio format boom and the emergence of new translations
Art: the gulf between artists in Belarus and abroad, exhibitions in Europe and dreams of the Museum of modern art in exile
Theatre: a taste of bitterness, zeroing and orientation to Russia
Music: surge of author activity, Russian content as a quagmire and the need for permanent maintenance
Conclusions and predictions
Cinema: attempts to unite, the search for a format for a promising work and the long list of “Oscar”
Already during the round table discussion (online and offline), Irena Kaciałovič, a film critic, a journalist and a co-founder of the “Red Heather” film award and the Belarusian Independent Film Academy, noted:
“For Belarusian cinema, the year 2023 began with the announcement that the Belarusian independent film academy was established. Its launch took place at the European film market of the Berlin International Film Festival. It was a representative event, where speeches were made by the director of the European Film Academy, Matthijs Wouter Knoll, the director of the Berlinale, Mariette Rissenbeek, and the German Minister of Culture, Claudia Roth. Ten Belarusian film projects in the works were also presented there, which in a certain sense showed the high level of what Belarusian independent cinema has in its hands, what it can offer.
At the CPH:DOX film festival in Copenhagen, there was a premiere of the documentary film “Motherland” by Hanna Badziaka and Alaksandr Michałkovič, which in a virtuoso way tells about the violence in the Belarusian army and in general in the Belarusian dictatorship. This film was screened at more than 20 film festivals and was also nominated for the European Film Award, which was recently presented at the Berlinale. Now the film is on the long list of “Oscar”.
Another event which I will mention – and it is very revealing – is the cancellation of the film festival “Unfiltered Cinema” in Minsk in March, it was the last independent film festival in the country, which was later held in Vilnius. I put this phenomenon in the list of the most important, because it testifies to the state of affairs in the country, to the successful progress in the pressure on the cultural sphere and even less opportunities to shoot films in Belarus itself.
An important event this year was the start of the second edition of the Belarusian Film Critics Award “Red Heather”. This is the only film award celebrating the achievements of Belarusian independent cinema, its jury consists of 16 people who are currently watching a long list of 70 films. And the award ceremony will take place in February next year, for now I won’t reveal the secret where and under what circumstances.
I will also note the main trends of this year. First of all, there were attempts to unite Belarusian independent cinema abroad with an attempt to set a clear boundary between themselves and state cinema and simply to join forces with the aim of integration abroad, finding ways to exist abroad. This was not the case when everyone lived and worked in Belarus, but now cinematographers want to indicate this belonging to Belarus. This is evidenced by the Belarusian independent film academy, which today has more than 20 members and to which you can apply for admission. And there is also the initiative of the Belarusian filmmakers’ network, which held a congress of Belarusian filmmakers in Warsaw in the summer.
There is a noticeable state of stagnation of the transition period. Not much has changed for Belarusian independent cinema: while remaining in Belarus, it found financing abroad and never had its own country which had to provide 51% of the film’s budget and facilitate the search for co-producers. Just now, I’m watching both filmmakers who have more opportunities abroad after 2020, and those who just can’t find financing for their film projects. It seems to me that now it is in search of ways of adaptation and rules of the game. It’s searching for ways to exist in new conditions. If earlier it got by with random successes and victories, now it is trying to build some kind of infrastructure, then a system of body movements, which today can be done abroad to implement ideas. And this systemic vision is also reflected in the grouping I mentioned.
If suddenly there will be a systematic support of cinema – there will be one case, if not, then I predict approximately the same slow adaptation to new conditions and sporadic victories. We at the Film academy were selecting projects for pitching at the European Film Market at the next Berlinale and collected only full-length films. It can be said that about 40 full-length film projects are currently in the works. My desire is related to the fact that these projects have opportunities for implementation, and their authors learn to knock on the doors of potential foreign partners and successfully find funds.”
Read more about events in Belarusian cinema in reviews from the analytical group of the Belarusian Council for Culture here.
Literature: international solidarity, the audio format boom and the emergence of new translations
Andrej Chadanovič, poet, translator, teacher of literature:
“I will start with trends, and events will become their vivid manifestations. The regime continues to attack culture, perceiving any forms of creativity and activity in this direction as hostile. Literary figures continue to serve terms in prison, a significant part of the works that appeared at that time became prison literature. The trend can be seen in the large number of laureates of this year’s Francišak Alachnovič’s award. Many publishers in Belarus are deprived of their licenses and cannot continue their work, some were forced to go abroad due to these restrictions.
The infamous list of extremist literature, which grows almost every day, testifies to the pressure. Here, for example, are the golden five of “extremists”: Łarysa Hienijuš, Natalla Arsieńnieva, Uładzimir Niaklajeŭ, Vincent Dunin-Marcinkievič, even the innocent Lidzija Arabiej, who was primarily engaged in children’s literature and researched the works of Ciotka, got here. I can’t help but say about Uładzimir Karatkievič’s novel “Ears of Wheat Under Your Sickle”, which is the most beloved work of Belarusians, has disappeared from the school curriculum.
This anti-tendency can be contrasted with positive shifts. In conditions of separation by borders, Belarusian culture learns to successfully overcome these borders and unite parts of Belarusian culture. Here I will notice a surge in the presence of literature in audio format: this is both the “Book Cart” (“Knižny voz”) and the new project of dubbing Sviatłana Aleksijevič’s pentalogy under the Kamunikat brand. Another example is international solidarity. We know of several cases when foreign publishing houses lend a hand and implement joint projects with Belarusian writers and publishers. These are, for example, the books of Uładzimir Niaklajeŭ and Uładzimir Arłoŭ, published in the “Poets of the Planet” series already in Poland in Kamunikat. Another example of cooperation is the Swiss-Belarusian project “33 books for another Belarus”, large-scale and intellectual. Within its borders, publishers in various cities and countries publish Belarusian books. The event here was the anthology of Belarusian drama “Strangers”, prepared by Zmicier Višnioŭ. And perhaps the most striking German-Belarusian project is the first 10 books of protest poetry published in Berlin as part of the hochroth Minsk series. The most distinctive voices of Belarusian poetry of revolution and solidarity – among them Nasta Kudasava, Hanna Komar, Artur Kamaroŭski, Kasia Iofie and other authors – got their their books published thanks to the project manager Dźmitryj Strocaŭ.
Within these limits, the trend of solidarity between Belarus and Ukraine can be seen: this year, three different books by Serhiy Zhadan translated into Belarusian were published in three different countries and by emigrant publishing houses of Belarusians. Many recent publications of Ukrainian poetry have appeared in the online magazine “Taŭbin”.
Belarusian literature matures in the analysis and experience of the processes of 2020–2023 to more epic, analytical forms. Here I will recall Alhierd Bacharevič’s collection of stories about repression and war “Search in the Museum” and the book of essays “Belarusian Bricolage” by the German researcher Genrikh Kirshbaum.
Another positive trend: publishers who are resuming their activities in new cities and towns are turning to the most popular genres and the most famous names and books in the world, which makes it possible to expand the zone of influence on readers and increase the number of lovers of Belarusian literature. The sale of a new translation of Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” has started, the publication of Sapkowski’s “The Witcher” and Rowling’s “Harry Potter” continues. At the same time, Lewis appears in new translations into Belarusian.
As a forecast, I will outline a trend that has already begun to take place: Belarusian literature will not turn into a ghetto and exclusively fixate on its injuries in new conditions, but will actively communicate with the world and discover all the best, opening itself to the culture of those countries where our writers found themselves. So, one of the brightest events of the year is the publication of the translation of the book “White Shroud” by the Lithuanian author Antanas Škėma. I know that the translator Siarhiej Šupa is already working on the adaptation of the novel “Tula” by Jurgis Kunčinas. A whole series of Polish literature in Belarusian is being published in Krakow by Gutenberg Publisher. These are the poems of the Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska, the poem “Grażyna” by Adam Mickiewicz, a collection of short stories by Maria Kuncewiczowa and children’s poetry by Maria Konopnicka.
Hopefully, these trends will multiply and deepen. Perhaps, in the future we will even get new Georgian translations from the Belarusians.”
Cichan Čarniakievič, literary critic, editor-in-chief of the site bellit.info:
“There were many events this year. Books were published literally one after another, new publishing houses appeared, and old ones were activated and adapted to new conditions. This year we see a huge amount of emigrant literature. A disproportionate level compared to 2022. Original and translated literature is published, publishing projects are alive, forward-looking, reader-oriented, and full of ideas. Here I will mention the appearance of the new publishing house “Mianie niama” (“I am gone”), the activation of the Skaryna Press publishing house in London, the appearance of the Krakow publishing house Gutenberg Publisher, which already has a number of new books.
I agree with Andrej’s opinion about the surge of projects that publish books in audio format. And here I will notice a new event: Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” was not published on paper, but it is in the audio version. This indicates that audiobooks are so important and popular among Belarusians that they may not even duplicate paper books, but appear separately from paper.
I will also mention our project – bellit.info. This is a website that writes exclusively about Belarusian literature and books. Now you can follow all the news, all news are collected in one place, they will not get lost in Telegram channels.
It seems that we are finding a balance: in Belarus they are trying to cross out names and works, abroad we are trying to write something. But it seems to me that the inclusion of works of literature in any document will not affect the text itself, its value and the author’s reputation. These books have existed for more than one decade, even a century, so they will exist in the future. They will also have readers.
Among the important names is also the appearance of new translations of iconic books. These are, for example, the novels of Remarque and Hemingway about war and a man at war. I think the trend will continue. It is gratifying that the entire literary mycelium continues to live and expand its sphere of influence. We are talking about meetings with writers, festivals, awards, tours with presentations of new books, conversations with authors. Everything is working and developing, and will only get better.
Therefore, my prediction will be as follows: there is no reason to talk about the death of literature. Books will be published, they will be read, commented on Facebook, the media will print interviews with the authors. But we face a very difficult task – to find a way for books published abroad to the Belarusian market. Perhaps this is a topic for a separate non-public conversation, but in my opinion, this is one of the most important tasks for 2024.”
Alina Koŭšyk, a representative of the United Transitional Cabinet in the matter of national revival, noted in a short remark to the experts’ speeches:
“An important event of the year can also be called the establishment of the Institute of the Belarusian Book. Thanks in part to its efforts, some of the books mentioned today appeared. Thanks to the support of the initiative, Belarusian writers and publishers were able to take part in international book fairs. I think this network of influence will expand and develop this summer: we will see new translations and new Belarusian editions. In general, it is good that Belarusian literature has adapted, and we will try to expand access to Belarusian books abroad. We are talking about the creation of Belarusian shelves in the libraries of various European cities. I agree with the fact that it is important to make sure that books abroad are accessible in Belarus, and here it is certainly more convenient to work with electronic editions and audiobooks.
It is also important to popularize our literature abroad, to create new literary stars. And this year we already have an excellent example of the book “What are you going for, wolf?” by Jeva Viežnaviec, which was translated into German and Czech and became a real event.”
Read more about events in Belarusian literature in reviews from the analytical group of the Belarusian Council for Culture here.
Art: the gulf between artists in Belarus and abroad, exhibitions in Europe and dreams of the Museum of modern art in exile
Sasha Razor, researcher of visual arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara:
“My vision of Belarusian art is formed from here, in California, and is based on individual contacts with artists and curators, online observations and short trips to Europe. Therefore, the picture can be compared with the technique of painting with broad strokes.
The first significant trend of the year was the deepening of the gap between artists who emigrated and those who remained in Belarus. Currently, our communication is mainly through informal or personal channels, with a distinct lack of formal dialogue. Despite the difficult circumstances, art institutions in Belarus continue their activities and organize significant events, including the Autumn Salon of Belgazprombank.
Artistic expressions take place against the background of political repression and even the death of the outstanding artist Aleś Puškin. It is alarming that five artists will celebrate the New Year in captivity. We are talking about Viktar Kulinka, Dźmitryj Padrez, Ivan Viarbicki, Alaksandr Nurvinaŭ, as well as the former leader of “Pahonia” Hienadź Drazdoŭ.
An important trend was the growing success of Belarusian artists and curators abroad, especially in countries such as Poland and Germany. The last few years have been a period of challenges and new opportunities for many of the cultural figures who left Belarus. But this year we have seen a large number of artists receiving invitations to prestigious residencies, holding solo exhibitions and prominently appearing at major European art fairs.
This year has been great for exhibitions outside the country. Among them stands out the project of the artistic duo “1+1=1”, Michaił Hulin and Antanina Słabodčykava, “Café belarus ii: Kassandra Complex”, which opened in Dresden in the Japanese Palace. The main idea of the exhibition is the struggle for artistic freedom, and it brought together 26 works: films, performances, drawings, installations, as well as new graphic and multimedia works that presented the complex relationship between myth and power in authoritarian systems.
Working abroad, Belarusians not only focus on their own creativity, but also actively participate in international initiatives. In the field of curatorial achievements, the international project “If Disrupted, it Becomes Tangible” of Belarusian curators Antanina Sciebur and Alaksiej Barysienka in Vilnius stands out. This project reflects the theme of political conflicts, presenting works by the Belarusian art collective eeefff and Uładzimir Hramovič among other international artists.
On the North American continent, the participation of Maksim Tymińka (Amsterdam) and Rufina Bazłova (Prague) in the prestigious exhibition “Pattern, the Grid, and Other Systems” at the fashion institute in New York in October was an indicator of the global influence of Belarusians artists. These works were dedicated to political prisoners: Maksim Tymińka’s video loop “Percussive composition for 2009 performers”. Rufina Bazłova’s work “Framed in Belarus” presented portraits of illegally convicted citizens of Belarus made with traditional Belarusian embroidery by project participants. This is an example of horizontal cooperation of the public community.
The activities of the International Coalition of Cultural Figures of Solidarity with Ukraine, which unites five Belarusian and two Ukrainian curators, can be called the project of the year. They took an active part in large European exhibitions and were included in the short list of finalists of the curatorial teams of the European Pavilion. This coalition, formed in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine, focuses on global interdependence and the need for solidarity in the face of war. Their platform antiwarcoalition.art is an open online repository of artworks dedicated to the themes of war, violence, colonialism and dictatorship, which aims to popularize and spread anti-war video art.
Looking to the future, one can see the promising beginnings of art institutions abroad. The first step in the creation of the future Museum of modern art was the “Imagining Open Museum” conference under the auspices of Ambasada Kultury at the Pilecki Institute in Berlin. In discussion panels such as “The museum as a structure that embraces the community and expresses solidarity and support” and “Solidarity, horizontality, community: cultural projects in Belarus”, the conference demonstrated a diversity of voices. This month, Open Museum launched its first podcast dedicated to Belarusian art and contemporary art practices. This progress symbolizes a positive and confident step into the future.
Looking forward to next year, I hope for the continuation and development of these positive trends, which will contribute to the growth of a lively and stable Belarusian cultural presence – both in the country and at the international level”.
Theatre: a taste of bitterness, zeroing and orientation to Russia
Nastaśsia Pankratava, theatre critic, journalist:
“In December 2022, the former head of the Palace of Children and Youth “Zołak” Zmicier Siamionaŭ came to the Belarusian State Puppet Theatre. After that, during 2023, there were layoffs: the stage artist Ludmiła Skitovič (there are only a few such specialists in the country), the leading actress Sviatłana Cimochina, the main director Alaksiej Lalaŭski, a cult director who raised more than one generation of actors and directors and brought the art of the Belarusian puppet theatre to the international level, were pushed out of the theatre. After them, many specialists left the theatre, including both actors and those who are not visible to the public.
The director Nastaśsia Hrynienka was not issued rental certificates for the performances of her private theatre “Territory of the Musical”. After a year and a half of downtime in Belarus, Ms. Hrynienka moved to Irkutsk, where she took up the position of chief director of the Irkutsk Regional Musical Theatre. Musical choreographer Zmicier Jakubovič moved with her. Because of this departure, there is no longer a professional in Belarus who knows this field of art well, because it was thanks to Ms. Hrynienka that world musicals were brought to Belarus. For example, the classic “West Side Story” and the modern “Next to Normal” were performed thanks to legally acquired copyrights. In 2018, the latter received the National Theatre Award as the best musical performance (the only time in history when a state opera and musical had to compete with a private theatre in the nomination).
In September 2022, a meeting of Belarusian theatre actors was held in Warsaw, during which a memorandum on the foundation of the Belarusian Institute of Theatre was announced. However, this is only a statement of intent. No information about the completion of the process of creating the institution has yet appeared, its functioning is not mentioned on public platforms. However, the idea is good: the theatre community is interested in the emergence of a centre that would help establish horizontal connections between theatre actors scattered around the world, and would also contribute to the preservation of the heritage that is being actively erased in the country today.
I am glad that during the conference to discuss the Belarusian Theatre Institute, I saw dozens of people who are burning with ideas and are ready to create Belarusian theatres and performances.
Among the trends, I would like to mention that Belarusian artists began to merge into the cultural space of the countries they moved to. This is a very necessary thing, so that Belarusian culture does not close itself in a bubble. In order for Belarusians to be known in the world and perceived as equals, it is necessary to merge into the European art market. And the first steps on this path are being taken by many national figures. For example, Uładzimir Ušakoŭ stages performances together with Finnish actors or takes part in the Norwegian Theatre Laboratory. Palina Dabravolskaja stages performances in the Czech Republic, Juryj Dzivakoŭ staged his play on the Polish stage, and Mikałaj Chalezin staged the opera “King Stakh’s Wild Hunt” in London.
However, it is disappointing that Belarus is losing theatre critics as a profession. Older generations of critics are sharply divided between those who stayed in the country and those who left. The former bypass many topics, often cannot express sincere thoughts, or even simply “forget” about those figures who made theatre history, but now found themselves on the other side of the barricades. Others are forced to adapt to the new conditions of life in exile: the profession of a theatre critic cannot support themselves in exile (there is often no place to publish), so they either move to another field or write extremely rarely.
In addition to all this, the young generation of critics in Belarus is coming, so to say, from a clean slate: in 2023, they can offer to see the winner of the former National Theatre Award – the play “Revisor” by the Kupałaŭcy with the participation of Manajeŭ, although for obvious reasons in today’s Janka Kupała National Theatre it is impossible to see this production. Abroad, the new generation of critics is unlikely to find a place to get published, so they will most likely retrain or start working in foreign media. Accordingly, they will write about foreign cultural trends.
The time has come to accept that we cannot wait for the appearance of a provisional Ministry of Culture in exile. As Kryścina Drobyš beautifully said, “people leave and create a single understandable system of coordinates for the team’s existence – a dictatorship known to them.” Instead of waiting for someone to give money or provide a platform, tell how and what to do, it was better to understand that now we are all in the conditions of the European art market. Therefore, it is necessary not only to create a play/performance/event, but also to learn how to promote it, to look for ways to foreign colleagues, to try to break through the section of the Belarusian theatre at international theatre festivals together. Then the Belarusian theatre art will not only preserve what it already is, but also develop.”
Dzianis Marcinovič, theatre critic:
“We see zeroing in the national theatre. Perhaps this is a manifestation of the tendency characteristic of Belarusians: to start something and say that they were the first to do it. That is why it turns out that there are few connections between generations, and today even what was purposefully collected and accumulated is disappearing. It was in the late 2010s that the people of the theatre united thanks to the Art Corporation team, which was supported by Viktar Babaryka, and it was an alternative system to the state one. There was the Teart festival, where the best foreign performances were shown, and there was the Tok theatre, an initiative that created Belarusian performances. It was possible to watch recordings of performances from cinema screens – the TheatreHD project. Work in this direction has been going on for about 10 years and gave hope that continuity between generations will still appear.
But the 2020s came, and almost everything that was accumulated in the 2010s was destroyed. How did it manifest itself in practice? For example, the Puppet Theatre shows only one performance by the former head of the theatre Alaksiej Lalaŭski. The director Uładzimir Savicki worked at the Belarusian State Academic Theatre for Young Spectators for a long time – now only one of his adult performances remains in the repertoire. Mikałaj Pinihin’s productions have long been gone from the Janka Kupała National Theatre. Of the performances of Barys Łucenka, who worked at the Gorky Theatre for a long time, one production remained.
Another telling fact. In 2019, critics made a survey and determined the best performances of the year. Of the ten productions selected at that time, you can see two of them in Belarusian theatres today. It is also disappointing that there are usually no good video recordings of performances. If the book remains in the archive or library, the performance as a work of art will disappear. And in fact, those who come to the Belarusian theatre today and become interested in this art will talk to us in different languages: what we saw in the previous decade, they will not be able to see.
Another sad trend is the focus on Russia. The Janka Kupała National Theatre is staffed by students of Russian universities for whom Belarusian is not their native language. In 2023, the Gorky Theatre and the Hrodna Puppet Theatre received financial support from the aggressor country of Russia. It is noteworthy that these funds are directed to productions of plays based on the works of Russian authors. Belarus has turned into a touring venue for Russian groups, Russians are increasingly being invited as directors.
Everything is boring with the repertoire too. Performances about the Second World War became mandatory, the “Victory” festival appeared on the basis of the Janka Kupała National Theatre, where these productions are shown.
The names of dismissed employees disappear from theatre websites, even if it is the name of the director, and his play is still in the repertoire.
Russification continues. The Belarusian State Academic Theatre for Young Spectators (Viera Palakova was appointed as its director) decided to stage performances in Russian. Аnd the most telling thing: today there are 29 professional theatres in Belarus, of which only four have productions exclusively in Belarusian: these are the Janka Kupała National Theatre, the RTBD (the Republican Theatre of Belarusian Drama) and two Viciebsk theatres – the Jakub Kołas National Academic Drama Theatre and the Puppet Theatre “Lalka”.
In the end, I will say that globally I am an optimist, sooner or later everything will be fine, but it seems to me that in the near future everything will only get worse. That’s why my main wish for the Belarusian theatre is to survive until better times.”
Read more about events in the Belarusian theatre in reviews from the analytical group of the Belarusian Council for Culture here.
Music: surge of author activity, Russian content as a quagmire and the need for permanent maintenance
Alaksandr Čarnucha, journalist, writer and YouTube blogger:
“The main event of 2023 is the quantitative and qualitative activity of Belarusian musicians. I have been dealing with the topic for more than a dozen years and I can say that the variety of musical material and its value is really impressive. Perhaps, this is the brightest year in Belarusian music over the last decade. “Syndrom Samazvanca”, “Torf”, Nastaśsia Rydleŭskaja, Zmicier Vajciuškievič, “Polyn”, Palina – recently I made a review of the 12 brightest albums of 2023, but this is far from all interesting.
Among the highlights, I would like to mention the opera of the Belarusian Free Theatre “King Stakh’s Wild Hunt”, which premiered in London. This is a new Belarusian project that was heard in the world context. It will be very interesting to watch the fate of this work from a distance.
But that’s the end of my good news. If we talk about mass culture, then everything is very complicated. Among the Belarusian summer festivals in the country and abroad was Viva Braslav with an almost entirely Russian line-up. This year, it set an attendance record – 30,000 people. And this is the first place by a large margin. Another notable event is Anna Asti’s three consecutive sold-out performances at the Minsk Arena: an obvious testimony of the mass tastes of Belarusians.
Here I will notice a trend – the gradual absorption of the collective Belarusian into the Russian context. Naturally, there are many factors and reasons why this happens. The first is the absence of a market and comprehensive show business that would formulate the Belarusian context. Music is, if I’m not mistaken, the only field in which there is no specialized organization: an institution, a production centre – whatever. The musicians are self-provided and the results are appropriate. We do not observe any systematic work.
Secondly, the painful and paradoxical dependence of independent media on actors of Belarusian and Russian propaganda: Belarusian media do not have systematic work with cultural content and the appropriate expertise to rebuild this system.
The second trend is the gradual conforming to the artificial watershed of “them” and “we”, which reflects a misunderstanding between Belarusians depending on circumstances and geography. Emigrant albums are just an illustration of this trend: popular musical material intended for a narrow target audience outside the country’s borders. The trend illustrates, first of all, the conditions in which Belarusian creators exist and are forced to work. Music remains a hobby for them and forces them to play opportunistic games.
The third trend is diasporic grouping and organization of concerts. Representatives of the Belarusian diaspora gather in an association and try to organize concerts of Belarusian artists almost entirely without experience in this field. It’s a wonderful initiative that should be supported and expanded.
The third trend is censorship and self-censorship, which has increased in Belarus. The authorities classify musical instruments as weapons, we saw this in the trial of the Tor Band musicians. A very revealing process – a demonstration of the state’s intentions: we will destroy every inconvenient thought, and musicians are the first in line. Naturally, in such conditions, the regime of underground and total self-censorship is activated. Talking is dangerous. Singing is even more so.
Forecast. It is very pessimistic. A system cannot exist solely on initiative. Money is needed for its maintenance. It is necessary to create a base and a foundation for the production of high-quality entertainment and something that at least remotely resembles show business. Systematic work of the Belarusian media is needed to help create the Belarusian context. Otherwise, collective Belarus will completely fall into the abyss of the Russian market, and the watershed between “them” and “us” will become even stronger. So far, I don’t see any prerequisites to change this course of things. So everything is sad.”
Read more about events in Belarusian music in reviews from the analytical group of the Belarusian Council for Culture here.
Conclusions and predictions
Thus, we see positive trends in Belarusian culture in 2023, which inspired experts and which should definitely be taken with us into the future. This is the need for creators to unite and jointly defend the interests of the entire industry; successful experiments, collaborations with foreign colleagues and the search for a new identity in new conditions; qualitative and quantitative surge of creative aspirations, their high effectiveness; the desire to unite the audience of Belarusians “here” and “there”.
At the same time, the speakers noted the strong attraction of the Russian context, which affects the culture of Belarus in the country, as well as the disunity of the efforts of active players in some areas (for example, in music) and the lack of permanent funding that would at least provide for the basic needs of cultural figures and would keep them as professionals. At the same time, let’s agree that this is a good plan for the future.
We wish Belarusian culture to endure. To be a creator is to find a common language and to find ways out of crises through joint efforts. We are talking about crises of trust in each other, lack of funding and general confusion, disorientation in space. It seems that the year 2023 and its results show that we have every reason to be confident that Belarusian culture has survived and will live on.
