Encounter: 7th Tea Oval: Vocabulary of Memory: Seven Terms for Discussing Art from Belarus with Olga Bubich

Date: Thursday, November 14th

Time: 19:00 – 21:00

The “triple crises” of mass conflict, uncontrolled COVID-19, and economic collapse in early 2021 have exacerbated suffering, resulting in dehumanizing treatment, lack of rights, extreme poverty, and pervasive anxiety in Myanmar. Meanwhile, Belarus is developing coping strategies and fostering a predominantly positive protest narrative to help navigate traumatic experiences amidst ongoing repression following the violent crackdown on protests in 2020.

On 22 September, Belarus Prime Minister Lukschenko and Myanmar Coup Leader General Min Aung Hlaing exchanged messages emphasizing the importance of implementing policies aligned with the interests of their citizens.

To commemorate this anniversary counterintuitively, the Belarusian memory researcher Olga Bubich will deliver a lecture with an engaging, participatory discussion. The session will not be a one-way lecture but a dynamic exchange of ideas. It will focus on seven specific words and their contemplated cultural significance and artistic relevancy, inviting every cultural practitioner to delve into the world of Belarusian art and artists, as well as the political dimensions of memory, censorship, hopes, and pains. This interactive approach will help us discover the art of (not) forgetting and how it can be a powerful form of resistance against global memory censorship, which is undoubtedly happening.

BIO
Olga Bubich, a versatile professional who works as an essayist, journalist, and artist, will lead the session. Her work delves into personal and collective memory themes, mainly focusing on the impact of traumatic historical events, censorship, and memory distortion enforced by repressive regimes. Olga has collaborated with various international media outlets in her journalism and writing career. She has been recognized with several awards, including an ICORN fellowship in Berlin (2023/2024) and the Tbilisi Data Fest (2022). In 2021, she released a photobook titled “The Art of (Not) Forgetting,” which has been acquired by over 20 prestigious institutions worldwide. Based in Berlin due to forced exile from Belarus, Olga’s research revolves around the collective memory of WWII and how European mnemonic institutions present it.