Exhibition talk
Yauhen Attsetski: The Square of Changes

We cordially invite you to the exhibition talk about the current exhibition in the courtyard of the House of the Lords of Kunštát. The event will be carried out in the Czech language.

The photographic series Square of Changes has been made by Yauhen Attsetski from Belarus as an ongoing, time-lapse photographic documentary of a place where locals began to gather spontaneously and demonstrate against the current undemocratic practices of the Belarusian government. More such places have sprung up in Minsk and other cities.

Attsetski’s photographs capture the events and atmosphere of anti-government protests that erupted throughout Belarus after the manipulated presidential election of 9 August 2020. The photographic documentation of the Square of Changes has been further developed since then on an ongoing basis; the “square” in question is in fact a small area among tall prefab buildings that the photographer’s flat windows give on to. It is actually a courtyard in a Minsk housing estate with a playground and a transformer station in the middle. On the wall of the transformer station, an unknown artist painted a graffiti depicting the so-called “DJs of change.” They were among the first protagonists of the protests, two sound engineers who played the protest song Expecting Changes during a pro-regime election rally and raised their hands in a gesture of triumph. They were subsequently arrested, and after their release they had to flee the country to escape further persecution.