Lesya Pchelka's solo exhibition Great Stone explores a hypothetical of how Belarus is changing as it becomes part of the new Chinese Silk Road. Lesya Pchelka is an artist born in Belarus, now living in Berlin. Her artistic practice includes photography, video, installation and archival work. Through research, Pchelka explores collective memories from the Soviet past and present day, reflecting on pressing social issues and experiencing political trauma.

For more than 30 years, Belarus has been ruled by a dictatorial regime whose power seems inexorable. Criticism from Europe, support from China! This is no coincidence, since Belarus is seen as an important, if not the most important, element in the success of China's Silk Road initiative, through which China seeks to expand and strengthen its geopolitical influence. With the Great Stone Industrial Park, launched in 2010 and located in Belarus, 25 km from Minsk, China has created the largest construction project to date within the framework of the Silk Road project. It has been praised by leader Xi Jinping and called the crown jewel of the Silk Road project.

Although it is officially called an “industrial park,” it is actually a satellite city with its own infrastructure, housing for 1,500 people, including recreational and sports facilities, museums, schools and much more. The project has a number of economic advantages for China: it offers duty-free access to the Eurasian market, is located in the geographical center of Europe and borders the European Union. The project not only represents close economic cooperation between China and Belarus, but also unites the two countries culturally.

Cooperation between the two countries now extends beyond economics to other areas of daily life and education. For example, Belarusian schoolchildren can study either English or Chinese at school, and public places in Minsk are increasingly labeled in Russian and Chinese. However, this convergence occurs mainly at the economic and political level; There is little overlap and little real integration in the daily lives of Minsk residents.

In the exhibition, Lesya Pcholka explores this cultural dichotomy, as well as the value of migration as a means of global cultural exchange. She views the process of cultural and economic interaction as a new coalition of cultural spaces. She reflects on how everyday practices can be transformed by culture. The demographics of Belarus paint a very homogeneous picture: more than 85% Belarusians and only a small proportion of Russians, Poles, Ukrainians and Jews.

In her objects, Lesya Pchelka explores stereotypical traditions such as macrame, a knotting technique that originated in the Soviet Union and is still used in Belarus to make jewelry, textiles or jewelry, and combines it with shibari, the erotic art of bondage that evolved from traditional military bondage techniques and body restraint practices.

She uses maps of Belarus and China on the tea tables to symbolize cultural communication, while built-in surveillance cameras refer to repressive practices used to control and pressure citizens, an approach that unites both cultures. The botanical garden contains images of Asians, which are a counterpoint to the industrial project "Great Stone". The images are complemented with abstract macrame symbols from old Soviet magazines.

Lesya Pchelka calls for the creation of a new, open Belarus with fresh ideas and structures that will leave the past behind and make way for something new. This New Belarus is not yet in sight, but it hints at it with a light installation in which ultraviolet light, which usually promotes the growth of germinating plants, is intended to give this young nation with a centuries-old history a leap towards independence.

Lyricist: Michaela Geboltsberger