HISTORY OF THE PLATFORM
Reasons for the emergence of the platform
The platform was created primarily due to dissatisfaction with the situation in contemporary Belarusian art, as well as the relative invisibility of the experience of Belarusian art in the Eastern European and international context. By inertia, the official cultural policy of Belarus preserved the features of the Soviet period, borrowing the centralized vertical bureaucratic system of cultural management. On the one hand, the current political regime in the mid–1990s abolished or greatly complicated the activities of independent institutions (non-state galleries, foundations, associations), as well as criminalized foreign funding, which led to a long-term stagnation of the art system and the absence of an institute for the study of contemporary Belarusian art which would conduct archival activities and promote integration into the international artistic context. As a result, during the reassessment of the artistic experience of Eastern Europe in all major studies of the 1990s and 2000s, Belarus was practically excluded from the general archive, remaining a "white spot" on the map of Eastern European art. Although there are various official institutions in the country, their activities lack effective research and archival work in the field of current art and cannot withstand criticism.
After 2005, in the environment of independent culture, there are noticeable processes of activation and consolidation of the art community, which led to the opening of non-state institutions – galleries, publications, Internet portals, research and exhibitions. A large amount of material was collected, which requires the preservation and accumulation of accumulated information and experience to create an open archive of contemporary Belarusian art, not only to avoid the loss and oblivion of another period of art development, but also as an example of the fight against the arbitrariness of the official cultural policy. This is how the decision was made to create an independent research platform of contemporary Belarusian art .
The base of the platform
The second half of 2014
The research platform of contemporary Belarusian art KALEKTAR was founded on the initiative of , and . In 2014, the artist Sergey Kiryushchenko published an article on the portal, in which he invited the community to consider the idea of creating a private museum of modern art M21. After a long discussion of the presented project with various experts, the artist Sergey Shabohin joined the development of the concept, with whom they rethought the expediency and timeliness of the proposal for the formation of the museum. As a result, the project underwent significant transformations towards research activities and the creation of an open archive, rather than a museum. It was decided to create an archive in the form of an open Internet resource, which was thought of as a procedural one - a site that is constantly filled with archival information. In order to create the most diverse and extensive archive, there was a need to combine disparate strategies and sources of information. Together with the curator Alyaksei Barysyonka, the artists developed the concept of a general project for the creation of the KALEKTAR research platform, which combines various initiatives and approaches to creating an archive.
Creating a portal
March 30, 2015
The official date of the start of activity of the portal kalektar.org. The Internet portal was developed by Sergey Shabokhin and the Hainter Active studio and was officially presented in Minsk. Due to the risks in Belarus, the project and the portal itself were registered in Bialystok.
New ZBOR resource
January 2015
The KALEKTAR platform team has started preparing research project . This project presents 40 selected works of Belarusian artists and collectives created from the 1980s to 2014. All the selected works are among the key statements that determined to one degree or another the development of various directions of Belarusian contemporary art. Founders and managers of the resource: Sergey Kiryuschenko and Sergey Shabohin. Expert advice: , , , , , .
Exhibition "Minsk. Nonconformism of the 1980s"
April 22 – May 10, 2015
The platform became a partner of the archival exhibition "". The document exhibition took place in Minsk in and presented works and documents from the collections. , , , , , , , , , , Sursky family, , , . The events that took place then are directly or indirectly related not only to contemporary artistic processes in Belarus. The exhibition was a kind of response to the exhibition Genius Dilettantes, dedicated to the avant-garde subcultures of the 1980s in Germany. Presentations and film screenings were held as part of the exhibition. Curator: Artur Klinov. Supervisors: , .
Launch of INDEX and ZBOR sites
May 19, 2015
The platform presented its two new special projects: the encyclopedia of contemporary Belarusian art INDEX and the collection of essays on artistic expression in contemporary Belarusian art ZBOR. Encyclopedia is designed as the main tool for organizing and constructing the archive of contemporary Belarusian art, which unites all separate projects of the KALEKTAR platform thanks to a specially designed system of pop-up windows/hyperlinks. The data system is filled according to the principle of an online encyclopedia in the form of autonomous information pages about names, key events and institutions in the system of contemporary Belarusian art. A glossary of terms is also being developed. Experts and participants of the Belarusian art system, as well as a team of volunteers, are involved in the work of the encyclopedia.
Exhibition Diploma in Minsk
June 23 - July 8, 2015
became part of the portal, and as part of this initiative, a group exhibition was organized together with graduates of 2015: , , , , and others.
Exhibition "ZBOR. Constructing an Archive" in Bialystok
August 28 – October 8, 2015
The large-scale research exhibition "" and the presentation of the KALEKTAR platform and the ZBOR project took place in . The exhibition represented a slice of the artistic experience of Belarusian contemporary art from the 1980s to the present day, in the form of 40 selected works, as well as their brief description and reproductions. All the works selected for the exhibition are among the key statements that determined to one degree or another the development of various directions of Belarusian contemporary art. The curators of the project and the invited expert board collected the works in such a way as to demonstrate the artistic strategies of several generations of artists in the most voluminous way, as well as to record key cultural and political events in Belarus. Curators: Sergey Shabohin and Sergey Kiryuschenko.
Exhibition "ZBOR. Movement of Belarusian Art" in Kyiv
March 31 – May 6, 2016
The second exhibition-presentation was held in Kyiv in the spring of 2016 at the Foundation. The curators changed, changing the exposition and methods of demonstrating the archives – they became and . At this time, Maksim Tyminko will join the expert council of ZBOR.
Antonina Slobodchikova's residence in Wroclaw
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Wrocław, in cooperation with the KALEKTAR platform, organized the residency of artists AiR Wro. During the residency, the artist presented her personal project "Purity/Czystość". Curator: Magdalena Skowronska.
ZBOR In Progress exhibition in Minsk
October 16 – November 30, 2018
Curators Andrey Dureika and Maksim Tyminko held the third presentation of the large-scale research-exhibition project ZBOR called at the Ў contemporary art gallery in Minsk.
ZBOR project in Wrocław
January 4, 2020
The ZBOR project was presented at the group exhibition "All of Poland. Expedition to the Sources of Art" at the Bureau of Art Exhibitions of the Wrocław Główny Gallery of Contemporary Art. The ZBOR project was presented in the form of an information wall, where each of the 40 selected works is presented in the form of a reproduction, a caption and a QR code that links to a detailed description of each work on the English version of the resource. The information wall was prepared by Sergey Shabohin based on the archives of the KALEKTAR platform and the ZBOR project.
Reorganization
September 2020
So far, the platform has been doing quiet research work. In 2020, due to the pandemic, interest in online resources increased and the editors made a decision and started a project to reorganize the platform and portal with the support of platform partner from Berlin.
Moving to Poznań
September 1, 2021
The platform has temporarily moved to the space in Poznań.
Exhibition ODKSZTAŁCENIE / DEFORMATION / UNLEARNING in Poznań
October 7 – November 3, 2021
The platform became the organizer of the international group exhibition in the space in Poznań. Curator group: , and .
New site
November 20, 2021
The new website of the platform was officially presented. The artist acted as the developer of the new portal, who reorganized the resource into a modern and user-friendly database. The new portal was implemented thanks to the support of the Federal Foreign Office, Civil Society Cooperation and the fund.
Establishment of residence
End 2022
The platform establishes for Belarusian cultural representatives in Poznań with the support of the Rönne Stiftung and the Domie space. The first residents were and .
Exhibition Coalition in Poznań
September 28 – October 11, 2022
As a response to the war in Ukraine, the platform organizes the Belarusian-Polish-Ukrainian group exhibition . Curators: Katarzyna Wojczak, Rafal Zharski, Martina Miller, Sergey Shabohin.
Translation of the resource
End of October 2022
A new tool is programmed on the website of the platform: automatic translation into English, Belarusian and Russian languages.
Creating a journal
May 1, 2023
The JOURNAL was designed as a space for publishing: essays, interviews, surveys, news, etc. First of all, the magazine was conceived as a resource that will publish materials about Belarusian visual art – both the latest trends and its history. JOURNAL was implemented by , which built many devices into the new resource: synchronization with , a system of pop-up windows and notes, support for automatic translation, lists of names and institutions mentioned in the publication. Information pages about the platform were also developed. The new resource was developed thanks to funding from the fund with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office and Civil Society Cooperation.