Hanna Musalova’s Exhibition “Life on Boxes” at the Free Belarus Museum

Subtle, conceptual, and remarkably cohesive, each work in the exhibition is accompanied by an essay-like text that reveals Hanna Musalova’s personal experience and explores themes that are important to her: language, shame, home, memory, and the search for a sense of stability.

On 25 August, we opened the first solo exhibition by the young artist, who travelled to Warsaw especially from Vilnius. During the opening, Hanna shared with the exhibition’s guests where the images in her paintings come from, what she dreams about when she thinks of having a place of her own, and why she sometimes wishes that a home could simply be ordered from IKEA.

“One day, while wondering whether it was worth buying a shelving unit for a rented apartment, since I was only going to be here temporarily, I realised that I had been living ‘on boxes’ for almost six years. And if boxes had become part of my home, it was time to at least start painting on them.” This is how the series Life on Boxes began — a personal story of Belarusian emigration told through painting and text.

Hanna Musalova paints with tempera not on ordinary cardboard, but directly onto cardboard boxes, preserving their shape, folds, and traces of use. A temporary object associated with moving becomes a medium for reflecting on home, memory, loneliness, and the search for stability.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the opening and supported the young artist. And if you have not yet had the chance to experience Life on Boxes, we invite you to visit the Free Belarus Museum. The exhibition is open until 11 September.

📍 Free Belarus Museum, 11 Foksal Street, Warsaw

The exhibition is presented as part of the project “Free Belarus Museum: Strengthening Capacity for Belarusian Culture”. The project is supported by the ArtPower Belarus programme and funded by the European Union.

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