Creative and Curatorial Strategies of Modern Belarus

Abstract

Igor Kashkurevich is a signifi cant author of underground art, one of the pioneers of performative practices in Belarus working in graphic and painting techniques, sculpture, installation, performance. In 1982, Igor Kashkurevich graduated in graphic arts from the Belarusian Theatre and Art Institute (currently the Belarusian State Academy of Arts). Since 1978, he has participated in exhibitions; in 1984, he co-founded the informal art association “Pluralis”, in 1994 – “the Sixth Line”, an independent gallery of contemporary art in Minsk. From 1998
to 2018, the artist lived permanently in Berlin, made sculptures from glacial boulders, taught, participated in exhibitions, and made performances. In 2018, Igor Kashkurevich returned to Minsk where in addition to exhibition activities he began to regularly hold open days in the Studio of the Creative Dynasty of the Kashkurevich Family.

The proposed material is an art history study of some of the actions of Igor Kashkurevich carried out with a time interval of thirty years. The happening “The Dual Horizon”, a joint action of Igor Kashkurevich with the artist Niko Tsetskhladze on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, was held in 1988 in Narva during the All-Union Festival of Underground Art “The Holiday of Art. Narva-88”. The performance “The Resurrection of Kazimir” by Igor Kashkurevich and Lyudmila Rusova took place in Vitebsk in 1988 as part of the project “110 Years of Kazimir Malevich”, and was then repeated in Minsk in 1989 and in Moscow in 1990. In 2018, in Minsk, the “Academy” gallery of the Belarusian State Academy of Arts exhibited an exhibition-mystery of Igor Kashkurevich “Thus Drew Zarathustra”. The works made with acrylic on paper in 1999-2000 were inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical novel “Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A
Book for All and None”, and had not been exhibited in Belarus before. The creative idea of the series was based on two intentions of the artist: “Thus wrote Friedrich Nietzsche in the guise of an imaginary Zarathustra” and “thus I, Igor Kashkurevich, created
this series of drawings in the image of Zarathustra the artist”. The author’s performance “Friedrich Nietzsche’s Moustache” shown at the opening created an associative bridge between the events of recent history and the present day.