Group exhibition:
ID: E20.12


Title:

Touchable Distance




Date:
October 29 — November 29, 2020

Place:
Ў Gallery of contemporary art, Minsk, Belarus

Curators:
Anastasiya Grishanova, Valentina Kiselyova, Anna Chistoserdova

Artists:
Danil Akimov, Raman Aksionau, Aljoscha, Siarhiej Babareka, Anatoly Belov, Alina Bliumis, Group Bouillon, Janna Grak, Mikhail Gulin, Andrei Dureika, Aleksey Zinchenko, Michal Iwanowski, Nikita Kadan and AntiGonna, Valery Katsuba,  Aleksander Komarov, Sergiy Petlyuk, Karol Radziszewski, Igor Savchenko, Ala Savashevich, Anna Sokolova, Tamara Sokolova, Topp&Dubio, Maxim Tyminko, Viktoryia Kharytonava, Sergey Shabohin, Oleg Yushko
Work:
Photo ST()RE #12: Dusty Slogan





Sergey Shabohin:
photo ST()RE #12:
Dusty Slogan,
2020


Explication:
The Gallery team presents the exhibition project we have been working on for the last few months. The text below was written for the project Touchable Distance, to open the gallery in August 2020, immediately after the quarantine and the first wave of the pandemic.The situation in the country has changed and the exhibition had to be postponed. At the same time, the artists' statements and their themes did not lose their relevance, on the contrary, they acquired new meanings and connotations. We decided not to change the text, it was left untouched: to sound absolutely different in this new context.

Recently, we have all been forced into a new format of interaction with reality and each other. This format has led to the frustration and rethinking of familiar concepts, increased fears and anxieties, and complete change in life and behavior. Breaking our usual tactile connections made us access the network constantly, and all the "touching" connections turned into online-connects. To survive, it became necessary to maintain social distance as to be isolated, but still remain visible and sustain contacts.

«These strange times» caused us to slow down and think about what we really need most: love, intimacy, the importance of tactile sensations and warmth. Also physical presence and communication with loved ones, mutual support and assistance. On a face of it simple human needs. Unknown. Uncertainty. Inescapability. Loneliness. Insanity. Nonsense. Stress. Anxiety. Masks. Deprivation of Liberty. Plague. Disease. Fear of suffocation and all other shades of horror. The desire to hide. The apocalypse. Hell. Deceleration. Reflexion. Privacy. Solidarity. Creation of a new. Mutual assistance. The desire to breathe freely. Creativity. New meanings. Awakening. Release. Understanding. Value.

How did the relationships between these powerful words and our attitude towards the external and internal perceptions change our worldview? Has something changed in principle?

Many thanks to those who helped us in the project: architectural bureau Radical Passive, Sticker.by, Mihail Mishuk, Anron Ryabov, Olga Bubich, Ilona Dergach, Ekaterina Daneyko, Andrey Zimenko, Alexey Kutuzov, Alina Rudina, Juliya Bardoun, Inessa Poltoran, Juliya Buslaeva, Denis Bashun, Anisiya Kazliuk, Maksim Savich, Igor Yukhnevich and a large number of those who were with us all this time!Keep your distance and stay calm. Be closer. Together.