GUESTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME HERE

The SculptFest Sculpture Festival is the first large-scale exhibition marathon that brought together most of the country's acting sculptors from various art venues in the Belarusian capital

The project was worked out by the sculpture section of the Belarusian Union of Artists. Its goal was to present to the general public the creators and their works made in various genres and materials, to acquaint them with new trends in modern Belarusian sculpture.

It must be said that apart from the central event of the festival – a traditional group exhibition in the Great Hall of the Republican Art Gallery "Palace of Art" – there were separate expositions at other venues. For example, the exposition in the "Academy" gallery introduced the work of young sculptors. An interesting event was the exhibition of animal sculpture in the art-living room "Vysokaye mѣsta". And the National Historical Museum of Belarus presented an exposition of the sculpture "Heroes. Events" dedicated to the history of the country and its outstanding figures. In total, the SculptFest sculpture festival united nine venues in Minsk, where 120 works by more than 60 authors from different regions of Belarus were presented. – This is a great cultural event that will be remembered for a long time. First of all, because of its scale, says Konstantin Kostyuchenko, a member of the sculpture section of the Belarusian Union of Artists, a member of the curatorial group of the festival, laureate of the State Prize of Belarus. – Over the past decades, this is, perhaps, one of the largest sculpture projects, which has involved the main exhibition grounds in Minsk, where the works of sculptors are exhibited, from eminent masters – honored and folk artists, to young authors – students of art institutions.

In turn, the chairman of the sculpture section of the Belarusian Union of Artists, a member of the curatorial group of the festival, Sergei Oganov, noted two tasks of the festival: – We wanted to demonstrate our art to people. It is difficult for me to judge what impact our sculptures will have on a person. At the same time, we also exhibit for ourselves – this is our professional demonstration of work to each other. We all have the opportunity to show our works on the Internet, social networks, we have a fairly well developed online visualization of works, where one can study the works of artists from all over the world. But still, in my opinion, the online space does not compare with what is happening offline. For example, while exhibiting, I myself saw many interesting works by other authors, whom I did not know about before. Thus, we can see what is going on, where are we moving, to look at ourselves in the context of our colleagues as professionals and in general what the Belarusian sculpture looks like in relation to the world.

Natalia Sharangovich, first deputy chairman of the Belarusian Union of Artists, said that SculptFest is a large-scale exhibition marathon that unites most of the country's acting artists-sculptors at various art venues: – Any personal exhibition is interesting and good, but in the format of the festival there is an opportunity not only to make a flashback, but to show a certain direction of art in all its diversity. It seems to me that this is a very significant, bright, interesting and memorable event. Although last year was difficult and the same difficulties continue this year, I would like art to live, breathe, show itself. Art should be, and you can create it at any time. The festival opens the eyes of the audience to the fact that we have formal and traditional sculpture, many masters work in historical, animalistic themes. A sculpture cannot remain on the floor – it must be displayed on good platforms. We are faced with the fact that there are many sculptors and there is much to show. We are very glad that not only Minsk artists have responded, but also the ones from our regional cities. This suggests that when there is a desire and opportunity, they results in such an interesting event.

Within the framework of the festival, 14 sculptures, including two created in 2021, a personal exhibition of the Mogilev sculptor Andrei Vorobyov, were presented in the Great Hall of the Republican Art Gallery "Palace of Art". "For me, an exhibition is always a report to myself and the viewer, so I included my new and most favorite works in the exposition," – said Andrei Vorobyov.

Sculpture is one of the most interesting forms of art. On the one hand, it has monumental forms, and on the other, it also realizes itself in plastic art. This plastics is absolutely free. – I think this festival was really a good gift for Minsk residents and guests of the capital. We tried to cover as many regions as possible, so not only Minsk was exhibited here, – Olga Nechai, a member of the sculpture section of the Belarusian Union of Artists, a member of the curatorial group of the festival, shared her opinion of the festival.

Although at first, it seemed that the idea was doomed to failure: empty walls around, there are only sculptures. In many museums, sculpture is a lovely accessory to painting. But this time the hall in the Republican Art Gallery with an area of 850 square meters has become space for real art, which did not have its own place in the Palace before. A team of curators selected items for the exhibition from any material that can be formed in three dimensions: width, height, depth. Clay, wood, marble, aluminum, silicone sculptures. Complicated reliefs were raised up.

In general, this is the kind of art we meet almost every day. To do this, you don't even need to go to the gallery, just look around. In Minsk, next to the Palace, there is the Victory Monument, a bronze composition on Kolas Square, a little farther, in the nearest park, there are also sculptural compositions... Look and be impressed. The more so, in spring we feel like watching beauty.

Veniamin mikheyev Photo credit: the author

at the sculpture festival