Art of Resistance Exhibition

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, artists in Russia and Belarus organized to opposed the war and campaign for peace. As their colleagues in Ukraine were killed, injured, forced to flee their homes and country, these Russian and Belarusian artists came under attack, including arrest, criminal prosecution, imprisonment, forced conscription, assault, expulsion from their jobs and institutions, and forced exile. In some cases, prominent artists were found dead or were killed in mysterious circumstances.

Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), with the support of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, responded to the crisis for Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian artists by establishing Emergency and Resilience Funds, and between X 2022 and December 2024 provided X grants totaling over X euro.

While Ukrainian artists were largely welcomed in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, and often found supportive environments and opportunities, Russian and Belarusian artists against the war continue to be ostracized and marginalized in arts spaces and face great difficulty maintaining their careers and creative work. This exhibit platforms a number of these artists, to draw attention to the tremendous sacrifices and suffering they have experienced, and to platform their work and resistance.

Russian Artists

742

Party of the Dead

Daria Yurischeva

Belarusian Artists

Uladzimir hramovich

Mikhail Gulin

The Art of Resistance is a virtual exhibition, organized by Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) and with the instrumental support of UNESCO, which brings together dissident artists from Russia and Belarus who were recipients of Emergency and Resilience funds through our grantmaking initiative for Eurasian artists. The work of the artists featured speaks to the elastic forms of resistance that creativity under pressure can take. Some artists, like the Russian creative duo Malyshki, play with whimsy and facade. Their piece Where Tenderness Begins, creates hot pink castles out of cardboard which then subvert our view; the cheerful looking structures are merely houses for pieces of heavy artillery that poke out from its doorways. A barely-veiled fantasy is broken; the militarized state hides behind everything. Other works, like Five Minutes Before the Prelude by Russian artist and poet Marina Stepanova, touch upon the affective and ineffable qualities of life under rising authoritarianism. The piece depicts a rib cage against a solemn, blue background, with the outline of a bird in the center. Here, the viewer fluctuates between conceptions of imprisonment and hope, mortality and rebirth. Is the bird itself a prisoner? Or is it the movement in our chest that keeps us going when the world around feels dark and silent? These are just some of the many questions that these works provoke in us. For speaking truth to power, exposing the criminality and cruelty of their regime, or merely for planting the seeds of discomforting questions, every artist featured in The Art of Resistance has paid a hefty price. Some have faced imprisonment, torture, and exile. Others, like Belarusian artist Ales Pushkin–who died in detention in July 2023–have tragically paid with their lives. What unites every artist featured–through both their artistic work and their corresponding interviews–is their enduring resolve, bravery, and willingness to invoke a more honest, more humane world through the action of creating.