Finissage of the exhibition Opening the Door? Belarusian Art Today

12.15
Guided Tour with Julia Fomina (Center for Contemporary Art in Vilnius)
meeting in the main hall
with tickets

13.15-till dawn
Presentation, Film and Photo-action VISA FREE BELARUS
workshop room / car park behind Zachęta
free entrance

16.00
Round-table discussion "Keeping the Door Open?"
Almira Ousmanova, Julia Fomina, Rafał Sadowski and Benjamin Cope
workshop room
free entrance

Almira Ousmanova – professor at the Department of Media, director of the MA program in Cultural Studies and lecturer in the MA program of Gender Studies at the European Humanities University. Acted as researcher for Belarus in the Gender Check project. Specialising in visual studies and gender studies, she has published and edited extensively: for example, her most recent publication is an article ‘Marxist Theories of Love’ in a publication she edited on Feminism and Philosophy, and is currently working on a book project on Representation and History: The Cinematic Images of ‘the Soviet’.

Rafał Sadowski – analyst and head of the Eastern Partnership Department at the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW). He specializes in European Union- Eastern European states relations, as well as in internal situation and foreign policies of Eastern European region. Editor–in-chief of the analytical portal EaPCommunity, dedicated to relations between the European Union and Eastern European countries (www.easternpartnership.org)

17.30-22 Open-air concert by the bands from Belarus
17.30 Plum Bum / 19:00 Malanka Orkestra / 20.30 Port Mone
car park behind Zachęta
free entrance

Plum Bum
It is a music born in port bars that accommodates all the strange things that sailors brought back with them from the high seas. It is difficult to give a precise definition of the style in which this collective of musicians plays. We might call it ska-jazz with elements of Balkan music or dynamic rock and roll. But closer to the mark would be to say that, in live performance, PLUM BUM looks more like a tornado, a bunch of crazy improvisers, a gipsy camp for the soul, that somehow remains and does not move on. www.myspace.com/plumbum

Malanka Orchestra
Malanka Orchestra was formed in 2008 by a number of the members of Nagual, a Belarusian band well-known in Poland. Good dance rhythms and moving melodies bring people together,” said Iggy Pop, words that the band like to use to characterize their music. The rich selection of instruments that compose the band, its diverse “musical flavours” and the charisma and energy of the vocalist make Malanka Orchestra concerts genuine musical events of the best kind. www.myspace.com/malankaorchestra

Port Mone
They have developed excellent instrumental compositions that connect the whole palette of modern classical music from rock, through ambient, psychedelic and extra-avant-garde experimental music to pop-music. With just three instruments, the band unites the essence of the whole of modern musical culture into a brand-new stylistic form. The instrumental trio Port Mone exists since 2006. Tracks by Port Mone have been released on compilations in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Scotland and Sweden. www.myspace.com/portmone

Partners of the Programme:
Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego
Europejski Uniwersytet Humanistyczny [European Humanities University] w Wilnie
Instytut Adama Mickiewicza
Stowarzyszenie My
Inicjatywa Wolna Białoruś
Eastbook.eu

The project was co-financed by the Department of Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland in the frame of the competition "Joint Polish-Belarusian Activities 2011".