“It is here”: look anxiety in the eyes

Antanina Slabodchykava’s works were not included in the anthology of the decade of Minsk art, in the group exhibition “Zero Radius” that became famous all over Minsk and attracted thousands of people to the workshop of “Horizont” plant. At the same time, Antanina has opened a personal exhibition in the gallery of modern art “Y”. Euroradio has decided to visit the exhibition to see what else can be done by Minsk artists and what they pay attention to.

The exposition is called “It is here”. It is dedicated to different displays of anxiety. Slabodchykava is trying to comprehend, utter, materialize, transform and even eliminate it.

Stop. If the fuel prices, Russian election and household problems bother you – you will not understand “It is here”. You should get tuned. You need to stop and listen to yourself.

“It is great when people understand that these problems are dust that will disappear instantly some day, - says Antanina Slabodchykava. – But people continue living even if they know it. But they live differently – some are restricted, others are more philosophical. I am not trying to change people’s attitude. I am not a preacher. I just think that getting to know some other points of view is interesting”.

Antanina has presented her point of view in two halls. The first one is “black” – works made of wire and decorated with artificial flowers from wreaths are displayed there. The works make up the main phrase of the exposition “It is here” or “Es ist da” in German (this is a phrase from a verse written by poetess Monica Ring, analyzed by Antanina).

The other hall is “white” – you can get there through a symbolic “hole in the wall”. There are a few dozen boards with collages and a sunk German phraseological dictionary that was used to make the collages. The phrase “It is here” is used everywhere, a lot of attention is paid to texts, words and certain literary men.

Two videos supplement the installations – the first one with “Es ist da” on a snowy background and the other one – with the artist’s self-interview where she tried to describe “the most essential”:

“Es ist da” denotes something that cannot be denoted and characterizes something that cannot be characterized. It is about anxiety that concerns us all. People feel isolation, despair, fear of life and fear of death…” – reasons the artist in the video.

Antanina confessed in an interview with Euroradio that anxiety was born inside her together with her daughter:

Antanіna Slabodchykava: “When I gave birth to my daughter Marusya, I could not go out for a month. It seemed to me that danger was everywhere. It may be explained by some hormone changes in medicine”.

She also added that she was keen on psychotherapeutic  literature, especially on American psychotherapist Yalom.

We do not know whether it is going to help you understand “another point of view” or whether you will be able to forget about “real problems” for at least 3 minutes and look for “it” somewhere “here”. Let us give you the artist’s advice just in case – come alone, without any company, be calm, lonely, look, listen and think.

See Euroradio’s Facebook for more pictures.