Group exhibition:
ID: E16.4


Title:

QAI/by




Date:
July 7 — August 2, 2016

Place:
Ў Gallery, Minsk, Belarus
The project by Karol Radziszewski in co-operation with Sergey Shabohin and Alexey Lunev

Curator:
Lena Prents

Artists:
Zhanna Gladko, Alexey Lunev, Aleksey Naumchik, Karol Radziszvewski (Queer Archives Institute), Igor Savchenko, Sergey Shabohin, Alesia Zhitkevich
Work:
Installation Fear of Castration






Sergey Shabohin:
installation
Fear of Castration,
2016


Explication:
QAI/BY is a code.

Code is a system of rules to convert information, occurrences, circumstances — such as a letter, image, gesture, ritual, event, or a reminder — into another form or representation. As a shortened, hidden or secret mnemonic, it serves up the communication and keeps stories. QAI/BY goes the opposite way and transforms the hidden information into visibility. It is a process in order to encode former and present lifestyles, attitudes and cultural production united under the term “queer”.

“Queer Archives Institute” (QAI) is a project by Polish artist Karol Radziszewski, that he established in 2015. The QAI focuses on archiving and re-interpretation of queer issues from former socialist countries and beyond. Before this, Radziszewski has been working for years on subjects of homosexuality and masculinity in Central and Eastern Europe. His QAI is led by an interest in a concept and embodiment of queer identities which allows a broader, less conformist, and deliberately ambiguous consideration of sexual and gender settings.

The idea for QAI/BY arose during Karol Radziszewski’s residency in Minsk. Being inspired by Igor Savchenko’s series of photographs “Invisible”, the artist made an attempt to immerse in Belarusian oral history and to track down what is or could be thought as queer in Belarus from the past till now – as hidden and invisible issues. Hence, QAI/BY doesn’t fix any new set-ups but invites artists, activists and interested public to reflect on and to continue the establishing of queer archive in Belarus.