Alesia Zhitkevich, Colorless Belarus, 2016

acrylic, plastic, mirror (spatial object), 80 х 80 x 40 cm signed, dated and described on the reverse:
Zhitkevich/Minsk 2015

The series ASEXUAL BELARUS appeared in 2015 and was the artist's reaction to an incident on the Minsk Sea, when the police dispersed tourists at a nudist beach that had secretly existed in the area for 20 years. In this way, Alesia Zhitkevich addresses the theme of micro-power at the level of sexuality and the normalization of the human body. The artist uses the image of the beach as a symbolic space of the highest manifestation of freedom, including freedom of the body, while at the same time the beach acts as a transitional space where the boundaries between private and public, intimate and social, personal and political are blurred. If an individual has the right to self-identify and freely express his or her sexuality, there is a high level of tolerance in society and a desire to defend the rights of oneself and others. The artist criticizes the control over the corporeality of citizens, which prevents the formation of the individual as a social subject: "Colorless, faded, painful, genderless Belarus, which now ignores and suppresses the 'bodies' of citizens, will hopefully become the coolest and freest beach in Europe in the future," says Zhitkevich.

BIOGRAM: Alesia Zhitkevich, artist. She was born in 1990 in Potsdam, Germany. In 2015, she graduated from the Belarusian State Academy of Arts at the graphic design department.
Her main creative activity is based on the correlation of art, philosophy and politics. Her research interests in art include the mutual influence of the public and private spheres, the structure of social space and corporeality, the study of utopias, etc.
He works in printmaking, video art and installations. Member of the art research group "Problem Collective".