Independent Belarusian culture - promotional campaign.
08.07.2022
On 4-8 July 2022, the Permanent Representation of Poland to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg conducted a Twitter campaign aimed at presenting the initiatives of independent artists/organizations from the Belarusian democratic opposition, who were excluded and persecuted by the regime due to their political/ideological views.
The reason for conducting this project was the visit of the leader of the Belarusian opposition - Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya at the meeting of the Committee of Ministers' Delegates of the Council of Europe on 6 July and her declaration on the international day of Belarusian culture from 2021. As part of the campaign, activities of former employees of the Yanka Kupala National Academic Theatre, the Free Choir (Volny Chor), the Flying University (Лятучы ўніверсітэт) or the Belarusian Free Theater were presented. References were also made to the works of Svetlana Alexievich and Andrei Kutsila.
The rigged presidential elections in Belarus in 2020 were a turning point in the life of many Belarusians. The elections and subsequent events were a strong blow to civil society and Belarusian culture and put it on the brink of survival: the independent Belarusian Writers' Union, the Belarusian PEN-Center and the Belarusian Language Society were liquidated. The books of the Nobel Prize winner, Svetlana Alexievich, have been removed from school curricula. The repressions concerned and still apply to theaters, whose employees often have had to seek refuge outside the state borders. Film art and musicians have also been repressed and censored.
Unfortunately, the number of persecuted independent Belarusian artists is much bigger.
The Belarusian culture, especially independent culture, which is one of the pillars of a sovereign state, is practically impossible to survive without the support of democratic states.
The aim of the campaign carried out by the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the Council of Europe, as a chef-de-fil for Belarus, was to draw attention to this problem and show how strong the feeling of cultural distinctiveness is in the Belarusian society.