»It Breaks My Heart When I See People Refusing to Talk to Each Other«

For me, it is about the movement in the moment, when you move to catch the light and the frame, which itself is fleeting. So one has to be in motion to be in the right place at the right time.

I have also worked a lot with reportage and street photography, as well as with dancers, here it is important to stay tuned with them and create a sort of joint choreography so as not to interfere with their process, but to complement.

My major is Architecture and I have collaborated a lot in this field as an architectural photographer, often shooting related professional events where something was constantly being built. At a certian point, my architectural sublimation reached its apotheosis–I always felt like doing something manually, and not just take photos and make videos.

As soon as I left left Belarus, I stormed art residencies with my applications, proposing all sorts of crazy projects that I could only do there–also hoping I would finally get a chance to realize my potential and work both with my hands and space.

The impetus for my development was a sudden admission to the art residency in Berlin HIER & JETZT: CONNECTIONS (HUJ:C) for artists in exile, where one of the entry conditions was our close collaboration with the existing community–something I had always appreciated (I really enjoy networking). I was given a studio and production money–which meant long-expected possibility of experimenting with art content.

Let me also tell you a few words about this residency. It was launched by artists from Germany, Italy, Venezuela, and the USA who all had studios in B.L.O space. Ateliers. They also had one large studio where they launched a residency to help artists in exile. The result is a constantly growing community that now includes people from Iran, Syria, Turkey, Brazil, Belarus, etc.

I was their resident in 2022, and did a project about the migrant crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border. For the last two years, I have also been a member of the jury in charge of the new participants’ selection.

Also, in emigration, my professional growth was influenced by the experience of co-creation of the projects The Body You Are Calling Is Currently Not Available and Ich Heisse Frau Troffea together with Sergey Shabohin, Marina Dashuk and Igor Shugaleev, because I have always been interested in shooting video projections for performances. Sergey is always so beautifully inspiring when talking about art, and I learned a lot from him.

I find Berlin extremely inspiring! Here everyone is always busy doing something, and I join someone for drawing, someone–for shooting a video, taking photos, etc. Endless energy exchange!

It is very helpful for me to be a member of the artistic team HIER & JETZT: CONNECTIONS (HUJ:C) residency, we do our best to support one other, hold collective exhibitions, make zines, launch workshops and film screenings, exchange news about participation in exhibitions (this is how I was invited to join in the group exhibition Beyond Home at Kunstraum Kreuzberg).

I try not to limit myself to Berlin, but there is a really very good atmosphere here–I feel I have been looking for this all my life!

With dancers, the main thing is to move together with them! It is important for me not to mess up with their energy when they move, but to complement it, creating additional safe space for this movement.

Usually, if we start working together on a project, we improvise, when I move with them and the camera; sometimes do life projections, shooting the material which can be used later as well. Also, we initiate art-based exercises together–unconscious writing, drawing and dancing, for example, opening the doors for our collective and individual unconscious.

We improvised together, Mauro Buttafava (our mentor and composer) endlessly played the guitar, while the performers worked with a loop station. My film director Sezer Salihi and I drew storyboards, looked for locations, everyone was suggesting something all the time–it was a continuous process of collaboration, where I was more of a photography director/cameraperson. The entire process resembled a social experiment, because I had seen my colleagues only once on Zoom, and then we began sharing the same space for 40 days–with no way to escape from one another.

The art residency itself was located in a very small town, where there was one castle, one church, one bar and one gas station. There was no railway connection with the rest of the world and one couldn’t get in or out so easily. Not far away, there was a very large Po River, a forest cultivated for paper production and vast fields where they grew rice and hunted. The last frame of the »Room of Yesterday« video was filmed on one of such fields. I remember feeling rather thrilled to be making it, because just at that moment the hunters went out hunting and started shooting. Since it was private property, they could also shoot at us by accident. But we did our best to wrap all up in time safe and sound.

So, my favorites in this series are two solos »Room of Yesterday« and »This Is Not My Cup of Coffee«. In the first one, I especially love the lyrics that Daniela Carler wrote for this solo–this endless loop, like a constant rebirth. Amazing is also the piece by Nelody Ahlroth, also with lyrics, which we filmed on the banks of the Po, in the wind and cold, noone had chances to escape from. Then there was also a physically and mentally difficult moment all of us, which I believe adds to the dramatic atmosphere to the entire work.

In one of the videos, Nelody Ahlroth dances with a huge white sofa–the trick she herself came up with. She improvised and rehearsed a lot looking for the right choreography and trying to maintain the balance in the dance. After all, it’s one thing to dance with a sofa in the studio, and another–to do it on the sandy river bank. Eventually, it was decided that she should throw the sofa off the bridge in the end–for drama. The guys, led by Camilla Pozzi, made a prototype of a sofa from cardboard and fabric and we (certianly) asked permission from the local municipality.

So, imagine that giant bridge over the Po–the spot Nelody planned to throw the sofa from, some 15-minutes’ walk from either side. An extremely cold and windy day.

Nelody was carrying the sofa onto the bridge, while Daniela was making sure all was okey. Well, almost all: of course, at a certian point we all were stopped by the police: someone had complained that we might be going to throw garbage off the bridge (as the locals often do there). But since, luckily, all our documents were in order, we followed the plan and did throw the sofa onto the sandy part of the bank, where we could then easily clean everything up later. Nelody had a phone in her breast pocket through which the director guided her, while I was filming.

We had one take for this, but everything went well. Nelody threw this fake sofa, it landed well and we immediately removed what was left of it. But the real sofa turned out to be very solid and after the filming we also used it in our final performance.

Oh, and the most meaningful thing for me–»This Is Not My Cup of Coffee« video! At one rehearsal the performers invited director Sezer Salihi and myself to ask any question we wanted, to which they would »answer« with a dance. The questions were spontaneous and unconscious, some even turned out to be therapeutic for me, because the time in the residence in general was very difficult, I hardly slept and I constantly faced a »deja vu«, so in the end the video was a kind of rebirth for me. Then the performers also came up with their own questions, and we included all this in the video. Sezer suggested making the final version in a meta-cinema style, but initially it was an improvisation with a loop station and questions, as I’ve just explained.

Each dancer worked on their own solo, and in pairs they practiced duets. The dancers improvised, the director suggested something, in some places we relied on the music, in others–on the location.

Some people did keep in mind emigrant experiences, some–their family history, and in the end it became clear that many of us had incredible emigrant history in their familied and we revealed personal stories of relocations, movements and encounters. I think all of these also had their own impact. The theme was there for all of us.

I think about this all the time too… »Why are we not talking to each other?« Especially in emigration, when all of us realize how fast the life is and how little can we actually plan ahead. We feel being constantly on the cutting edge, pressed to do things »here and now« because tomorrow may not come. It breaks my heart when I see people refusing to talk to each other–or putting off talking. This idea repeared in the video sometimes makes me want to cry.

I am actually following, yes, but mainly the works of my friends or acquaintances. Purposefully–no, but sometimes I just bump into new art pieces or names by chance, because we are still side by side–nearby–revolving in this common space, having personal relations with every second person. As for me, I feel I am always in touch with those who are dear and still in Belarus.

Actually, I try to do my best to be in touch with any friend of mine, and this connection is not based on one’s nationality. It has always been the case for me–I have always work hard to form my own connection webs and show interest in what my friends are up to. Sometimes it’s important just to ask them »Hey, how you’re doing?« or record them a video circle in Telegram–it doesn’t take much time and brings a lot of support.

I think that it was only thanks to my social connections that I managed to cope with many hardships of in my work and life.

Text, translation, design: Olga Bubich