State of Denial
Belarus
2024
For many years now, Belarus has been living under a repressive dictatorship that suppresses all forms of freedom of expression. The number of political prisoners, arbitrary arrests and disappearances is alarming. The information disseminated in the country is restricted and extremely controlled.
Sasha Velichko, artist and political exile, highlights our tendency to avoid and replace unbearable subjects with superficial and entertaining digital content.
Her State of Denial series brings together different types of images and content. Sasha Velichko begins by collecting 12 newspaper headlines published on a day when an arbitrary arrest takes place in Belarus. Using these articles, and with the help of artificial intelligence, she generates images as absurd as the headlines she has collected. She also creates staged scenes depicting the real cause of the detention, since the reason for the arrest is never mentioned in the press. In this way, Sasha Velichko aims to show the artefacts used by the media to divert the attention from these intolerable acts.
Portfolio
About the artist
Born in Slonim, Belarus, in 1993, Sasha Velichko is an artist who examines political emigration, post-truth and trauma. She holds an MSc in radiophysics. Her collaborative and interdisciplinary artistic practice focuses on photography and computer programming. Sasha Velichko is a graduate of the Fotografika school of contemporary photography and of the Gaude Polonia scholarship programme (Poland). She is also a winner of the annual Konrad Pustoła Memorial Prize for political critique.