DeepARTment

A statement from VIASNA:

The purpose of this virtual gallery, which contains drawings by political prisoners, is quite simple: to preserve the history of what occurred in Belarus in the 2020s and to record how many talented people were unjustly imprisoned for the courage to stand against the regime and express their dissent.

Drawing while imprisoned serves as a way to pass the time, provides psychological relief, and documents the conditions of confinement, the surroundings, and events that take place during incarceration. After the start of the war in Ukraine, some prisoners began to draw related themes, such as the anarchist Sergey Romanov, despite the pressure and growing danger. 

The drawings were collected by Viasna ("Spring") from open sources whenever possible, and some works were also passed on by the relatives of political prisoners and some by the artists themselves—after their release. Unfortunately, it’s already known that many artworks were destroyed by prison officials.

Viasna is one of Belarus’s oldest and most renowned human rights organizations, which has been documenting human rights abuses in the country for many years and providing assistance to those repressed.

Since 2021, when the organization’s leader, Ales Bialiatski, and his colleagues Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich, were imprisoned, Viasna has been forced to relocate almost entirely out of Belarus to continue its work both nationally and internationally.

Please, support the efforts of Viasna fighting for freedom and fairness in Belarus