[spectre] Report from Minsk new media festival transit 0.1 By

[Nils Claesson]

Report from Minsk new media festival transit 0.1 By
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MINSK PAKA
Paka is Russian for leaving, lets go. Leave. To leave is often the only w=
ay to=20
survive.
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--
Minsk is still an undiscovered Gotham city frozen in time.
Belarussia is the soviet Disneyland of Europe, the recent presidential=20
elections in September with an official 87% voting in the elections and 7=
5 %=20
for sitting president Alexander Lukashenka is a reflexion of this trend.
The high percentages are taken from the creative statistics of the past a=
nd are=20
a manifestation of the cementation of bonapartist rule. The president has=
 the=20
power and also control over majority of media; the ideology seems to be a=
 mix=20
of soviet nostalgia and pure presidential cult. Yes the president is a ho=
ckey=20
player. Yes he is a self made man.  He is like a father over ten million=20
people. The glue holding society together seems to be the fact that the r=
uling=20
party is keeping the living costs down and employment high. To pay, they =
print=20
new money.
This has created a galloping inflation: one year ago you got 1000 rubles =
for=20
one dollar- today its 1500. But things are never as the look like. Vodka,=
=20
hockey and circus will not keep the situation stable in the long run. The=
=20
stagnation put on the whole society as a result of presidential ideologic=
al=20
monopoly will in the long run undermine the presidential power structure =
even=20
if it can use inflation, weapon-export and for the moment the world situa=
tion=20
as stabilizers for its existence. The Billboards where gaping empty on th=
e road=20
from the airport:
The only adds where banners celebrating the firemen and police-officers o=
f=20
Belarussia.
So long as the US and Europe fear the Taliban and other fundamentalist ex=
treme=20
groups it means x-mas times for regimes like the sitting president. It=92=
s the=20
responsibility of the international new media community not to forget or =
leave=20
the Minsk scene behind a new iron curtain.
Belarusian artist community has never really broken with the underground=20
tradition from soviet times and lives an existence in half shadow struggl=
ing=20
against isolation and marginalization and the fact that exile seems to be=
=20
nearly the only way to survive and bloom. Stagnation is harsh, stagnation=
 is=20
grim, and stagnation will eat your hart and brain and pickle it in vodka.=
 But=20
this is not soviet-times, people can travel, people can access informatio=
n and=20
here also a quite new ghost is rooming around society: new media art and=20
international networking.=20
The force of history in form of new media will and is changing things: ev=
en if=20
the situation in Minsk can remind of the last decades of soviet stagnatio=
n one=20
thing is for sure:  information monopoly is for ever broken. The times wh=
en=20
people where hand-copying or hand printing rare novels are over.=20
For the second time, the association for contemporary art in Belarussia=20
organized a new media festival with international guests. The association=
 for=20
contemporary art in Belarussia is a network of artist and curators that f=
or the=20
last three years has been the hope for Belarusian arts has not stopped th=
eir=20
energetic efforts to topple isolation.
This year the new media festival took place in the local film-museum. The=
=20
festival was a mix of video-installations, screenings and presentations. =
The=20
international guests came from WRO festival in Poland, from Riga Sound pr=
oject=20
represented by DJ/VJ Lennarts and Valdemars connected to Rixc in Latvia, =
and=20
Sweden: artist Jon Brunberg from Stockholm artist group SOC participated =
with=20
two projects: one interactive real-time-video-installation first shown at=
 the=20
Crac show in Stockholm one year ago, and then Jon also presented first Ut=
opian=20
World Championship 2001, (http://www.soc.nu/utopian  a  project made by a=
rtist-
group soc.
I presented a video-installation:  =93If I was a Swede a dialogue with th=
e=20
propaganda-archives of Swedish families=94. The work a 55 minutes video t=
hat was=20
produced for a show at TV-galley in Moscow this summer was presented as a=
 video-
installation with a Russian voice-over and texts.
Dimitri Plax Belarussian artist and writer based in Stockholm made a=20
presentation over Swedish cd-rom projects and his and Karin Hanssons  pol=
itical=20
non-correct project the confessions of Plax/ Hansson.=20
The big difference from last year was an increasing number of participant=
s and=20
wider spectra of new media art projects made in Belarussia. From the adva=
nced=20
real-time video/audio projects of Andrej Savitsky to funny and clever ban=
ners=20
and gif animations sometimes reminding of Finnish group Katastro.fi proje=
cts=20
but still with a lot of local flavor: the architecture and diagonals of M=
insk=20
are transforming and imploding in digital world.
The festivals also draw attention from local television and press and als=
o from=20
local design, web and gaming community. Other results were that the Europ=
ean=20
Humanitarian University will teach about new media arts.=20
During the festival a concept of next international forum was formulated:=
 Minsk=20
Temporary Media lab.=20
In April Minsk Temporary Media Lab will take place. A group of internatio=
nal=20
artists representing different disciplines will be invited for a Minsk we=
ek and=20
make a project: Look for news about Minsk Temporary Media lab on the list.
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You know things are improving in Belarussia. I met a man that had to go t=
en=20
days in prison
last year for political crimes. Ten days in a cell 3 x 4 meters with 12 p=
eople=20
in the cell and=20
the prisoners smoking all the time.=20
-My mother got ten years in Siberia for saying one wrong word against Sta=
lin. I=20
got ten days.
The man was born in a prison camp in Magadan, his mother still alive and=20
kicking.=20
An old Russian saying: =20
The things that don=92t kill you make you stronger.=20
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Nils Claesson

Artist-film-maker and coordinator of the Production Network for Electroni=
c Arts=20
of Norway
and member of the Crac-board.