When The Sun Is Low – The Shadows Are Long

The exhibition When the Sun Is Low – the Shadows Are Long, curated by Anna Karpenko, was developed in collaboration with the Arsenal Gallery, Białystok and the Goethe-Institut Warsaw. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine gives the presentations in Białystok and Leipzig a special urgency. It also underlines the importance of the idea behind the exhibition, which the curator describes as follows:

“The realm encompassed by Belarusian culture does not directly correspond with the geographical or political borders of Belarus. Over the centuries, it has manifested itself in an “ethic of the borderland”, as described by the Belarusian philosopher and poet Ihar Babkou. It is confined by two disparate empires, characterised by diplomatic agency in the West and aggressive power in the East. This location has entailed liminal identities, fluctuating between the “alien in the self” and the “self as alien”. These are forms of existence that do not necessarily seek out direct confrontation with oppressive structures. Rather, they tend to break away from the prevailing order and subjugation, slipping into the gaps created by this state of constant transition, where their way of thinking becomes anchored liminality.

The exhibition When The Sun Is Low – The Shadows Are Long links contemporary positions of Belarusian art with two historical references. It highlights the interplay between an interest in tradition, the archaic and cosmology on the one hand, and a striving towards a pure form of modernist avant-garde on the other. The works of twenty Belarusian artists reflect various forms of resistance against repressive systems, whether they be the appropriation of ritual practices, artistic expression through amateur cosmology or the invention of a new language or a game.

When the sun is low, it is unclear whether it is rising or going down.”

The exhibition was presented first at Galeria Arsenal, Białystok (Poland) from 01.04.-13.05.2022.

A project in collaboration with the Galeria Arsenał in Białystok, the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig and the Goethe-Institut Warsaw.

With the kind support of the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation, Martin Roth-Initiative and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Public guided tour in English of the exhibition When The Sun Is Low – The Shadows Are Long with the artists and the curator Anna Karpenko.

The exhibition links contemporary positions of Belarusian art with two historical references. It highlights the interplay between an interest in tradition, the archaic and cosmology on the one hand, and a striving towards a pure form of modernist avant-garde on the other. The works of twenty Belarusian artists reflect various forms of resistance against repressive systems, whether they be the appropriation of ritual practices, artistic expression through amateur cosmology or the invention of a new language or a game.

The participation in the guided tour is included in the museum admission.

An introduction to the deep ecology practice of immersion in the natural environment. When the human meets the tree. Do we have enough sensitivity for this? What do we sense and how do we hear?

For more than 12 years, the Belarusian artist and environmental activist Bazinato has been investigating the intriguing connections between humankind and nature, broad-ening the spectrum of spectacular sensitivity.

Up to 10 people are invited to join us for a 2-hour deep ecology session in Clara Zetkin Park.
When: June 12, from 2 pm
Meeting point: Entrance to the GfZK Neubau
Language: English

Since the number of participants is limited, we kindly ask you to register by sending an e-mail to eckert@gfzk.de.

Entangled Avant-garde: from East to West. A public discussion with Daniel Muzyczuk – curator, head of the Modern Art Department at Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź (Poland), and Anna Karpenko – curator of the exhibition When the Sun Is Low – The Shadows Are Long (Belarus).

Founded by Kazimir Malevich in 1919 in Vitebsk (Belarus), the UNOVIS movement became one of the most influential and revolutionary art groups of its time. UNOVIS literally means “affirmers of new art”. Wladislaw Strzeminksi, who was born in Minsk but left for Poland, was the representative of UNOVIS in Smolensk from 1919 to1921. Among his students was another famous Belarusian migrant artist, Nadia Khodasevich-Leger, who also left Belarus in search of a better life, first in Poland, and then in France.

The paths of art migration in the early XX century, the transgressive figures in art history and their strategy of life and practice in wartime can be seen as a common feature of today’s reality.
Daniel Muzychuk (Lodz, Poland) and Anna Karpenko (Minsk, Belarus – Leipzig, Germany) will discuss the issues of nationality, war, the position of the witness and the role of W.Strzeminski’s afterimages and theory of vision in recent interpretations by contemporary artists.

Accompanying programme of the exhibition When The Sun Is Low – The Shadows Are Long

The event will be held in English.

Free admission to the event.

When The Sun Is Low – The Shadows Are Long edited by curator Anna Karpenko, opens up the view on the shadowy historical, political and phenomenological territory called Belarus. It highlights the interplay between an interest in tradition, the archaic and cosmology on the one hand, and a striving towards a pure form of modernist avant-garde on the other. Theoretical texts, poems, and interviews will frame twenty positions of Belarusian artists. They are reflecting various forms of resistance against repressive systems, whether they be the appropriation of ritual practices, artistic expression through amateur cosmology or the invention of a new language or a game.

The publication When The Sun Is Low – The Shadows Are Long is based on the group exhibition of the same name, which was shown in the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok and in the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig in 2022.

The book will be presented with a few lecture performances by Anna Karpenko and Anne König, publisher of Spector Books, together with Malin Gewinner, designer of the book.

Anna Karpenko, born 1985 in Minsk (Belarus), based in Leipzig, is a curator and author. In her curatorial and research practice she represents the intrinsic links between the archaic and contemporary forms of being.

When The Sun Is Low – The Shadows Are Long
edited by Anna Karpenko, commissioned by Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig; Goethe-Institut, Warsaw

Texts: Anna Karpenko, Ihar Babkou, Volha Arkhipova, Daniel Muzyczuk, Lena Prents

128 pages, Belarusian/English, ca. 60 b/w- and colour illustrations, 24×31 cm, softcover,

ISBN 978-3-95905-728-8

28 Euro