Warsaw exhibition pays tribute to late Belarusian dissident artist

August 7, Pozirk. Aleś Puškin fought against the regime through his art, which he believed could change the world, opposition politician Pavieł Łatuška said at the exhibition marking the 59th birthday of the late Belarusian artist that opened yesterday in Warsaw.

Ales Pushkin. AFTERLIFE is open at the Museum of Free Belarus until late August and is based on Puškin’s art performances.

His artistic vision represented real resistance, Łatuška said. “Each of his arrests, and there were many of them, each sentence, manifested the regime’s cruelty, but above all, stood for the artist’s strength of spirit and resilience that could not be broken by prisons or the dictator,” the politician stressed.

The European Union’s recent sanctions target Pavieł Kazakoŭ and Vasil Kalada, Hrodna prison officials responsible for Puškin’s death behind bars, Łatuška said.

“These are only first steps towards real justice,” he added, pledging to seek fair punishment for all perpetrators of human rights abuse in Belarus.

Marta Cienkowska, the Polish deputy culture minister, also attended the opening ceremony.

The prominent dissident artist died on July 11, 2023, aged 57 at an intensive care unit in Belarus under unclear circumstances.

He was serving a five-year sentence for insulting state symbols and inciting hatred, after investigators seized his painting of Jaŭhien Žychar, a commander of an anti-Soviet resistance group in the 1940-50s, and nationally-styled items.

Human rights activists said the charges were politically motivated.

Also read: Belarusian PEN: 104 artists behind bars in politically-motivated cases