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On August 6, 2025, the exhibition “Zastać/ / Zostać” opened in Warsaw. It is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the birth of Ales Pushkin — the artist and political prisoner who died in prison. The official opening took place at the Museum of Free Belarus (Foksal 11, Warsaw). The event featured talks about Ales Pushkin, a performance by the women’s choir SPIEVY, and music by DJ Xeenool.
The organizers note:
“Zastać / Zostać” is an exploration of identity, memory, migration, and everyday life — a dialogue between the personal and the collective, the tragic and the vital, pain and hope. This project is not so much about Ales Pushkin himself as it is about the themes and images that were central to his art and life, and that continue to live on today through other artists.
The event features paintings, installations, and sculptures by Belarusian artists, who use art to reflect on the experience of exile, rituals, everyday life, and the search for inner stability in times of constant change. The exhibition includes works by the following artists: Ksisha Angelava, Nina Margaeva, Sviatlana Baieva, Aliaksei Vrubleuski, Yuliia Mekes, Dead Boy, Kseniia Lahavaia, @belyi, Lera Lazuk, Kasia Varaksa, Sviatslaw Kamaroŭ, Yaraslau Hamolka, Mikhail Hulin, Andrei Dukhovnikov, and Illia Dudarau.
As part of the exhibition, an auction of artworks has also been launched, with all proceeds going directly to the artists. Auction lots will be displayed on the project’s website, alespushkin.com, where anyone can view the works and contribute to supporting contemporary Belarusian art. The exhibition will continue until August 20, 2025, with free admission.
Ales Pushkin was an artist and political prisoner, sentenced to five years in a maximum-security penal colony. When his sentence was announced on March 30, 2022, Ales loudly spoke out and undressed to show the cuts on his abdomen in the shape of a cross. For this, he was placed in solitary confinement for 13 days. Six months after being transferred to the colony, he was placed under strict prison conditions for a period of one and a half years. Less than a year later, on the night of July 11, 2023, Ales died in intensive care due to delayed medical attention for a perforated ulcer.
Original article: ВЯСНА
