BAJ exhibition on imprisoned journalists held at “New Belarus” conference

The project “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” is a visu­al form of resis­tance to the qui­et era­sure of jour­nal­ists from pub­lic space, the pro­fes­sion, and life — a process that the Belaru­sian author­i­ties have been delib­er­ate­ly car­ry­ing out for the past five years. Belaruss­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists spoke with vis­i­tors to the exhi­bi­tion at the con­fer­ence in War­saw, which was attend­ed by over 400 peo­ple.

BAJ exhi­bi­tion “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” in War­saw. August 9, 2025. Pho­to: Author

Portraits with a glitch effect”

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, con­cerned that the per­se­cu­tion and repres­sion of jour­nal­ists might dis­ap­pear from the media agen­da and turn into white noise, launched the project “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode.”

Cur­rent­ly, 37 media work­ers are behind bars in Belarus.

They have been deprived of the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be with their loved ones, raise their chil­dren, care for their par­ents, and do the work they love. The only rea­son they are impris­oned is because they car­ried out their work with integri­ty, gath­er­ing and report­ing time­ly, accu­rate infor­ma­tion.

Twelve works ded­i­cat­ed to impris­oned jour­nal­ists were cre­at­ed by Belaru­sian artists Kasia Budzko and Kat­siary­na Miats. Each rein­ter­pret­ed the project’s theme in her own artis­tic style. The works are accom­pa­nied by texts con­vey­ing the sense of the sud­den depri­va­tion of basic human joys and the inabil­i­ty to live a nor­mal life.

BAJ exhi­bi­tion “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” in War­saw. August 9, 2025. Pho­to: Author

In Kasia Budzko’s series, jour­nal­ists sym­bol­i­cal­ly “return” to the cities where they once lived, loved, worked, and dreamed. She places their images against mod­ern urban back­drops, cre­at­ing a stark con­trast between the ordi­nary rhythm of dai­ly life and a person’s per­son­al tragedy. This approach restores vis­i­bil­i­ty to those now in prison, keep­ing them alive in the mem­o­ry of the city, its peo­ple, and the country’s his­to­ry.

Kat­siary­na Miats focused her art­work on the idea of main­tain­ing human dig­ni­ty and inner integri­ty while in cap­tiv­i­ty. Using the metaphor of a mosa­ic, she shows how iso­la­tion breaks a per­son into frag­ments, yet the col­or and light in those “pieces” pre­serve hope for restora­tion.

The artist also added a “glitch” effect — a tech­ni­cal fail­ure sym­bol­iz­ing the absur­di­ty and injus­tice of impris­on­ment. This visu­al device empha­sizes the fragili­ty of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers’ con­nec­tion to the world while also remind­ing us of the need to restore each prisoner’s full sto­ry, not let­ting their names van­ish.

“I recognize the building in Hrodna used as a background for Pavel Mazheika’s portrait”

Ire­na Kat­sialovich, jour­nal­ist and film crit­ic:

“I real­ly like the por­traits of impris­oned jour­nal­ists imag­ined as street art on Min­sk walls — in this artis­tic form, they can­not be cov­ered up, paint­ed over in gray, or destroyed, which the local hous­ing main­te­nance ser­vice would cer­tain­ly do. These por­traits seem to take their place in the ‘folk­lore’ of urban court­yards, which means respect and recog­ni­tion.

Right now, peo­ple can­not open­ly express respect this way or bring these ‘prints’ to Belaru­sian streets, but I’m sure that in the future this gallery of faces will be pre­served in var­i­ous for­mats, includ­ing artis­tic ones, with­in the coun­try.

What dozens of jour­nal­ists are going through today for their work is yet anoth­er proof of how vital their pro­fes­sion is on a nation­al scale.”

BAJ exhi­bi­tion “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” in War­saw. August 9, 2025. Pho­to: Author

Ali­na Koushyk, direc­tor of Bel­sat:

“Every ges­ture of sol­i­dar­i­ty, every action sup­port­ing those behind bars and those fight­ing out­side prison, real­ly mat­ters. So every time I see the faces of our polit­i­cal pris­on­ers on posters or at exhi­bi­tions, I’m deeply moved, and I very much want to see them in real life. I appre­ci­ate BAJ for once again remind­ing about them and speak­ing their names aloud.”

BAJ exhi­bi­tion “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” in War­saw. August 9, 2025. Pho­to: Author

“I like the idea of the exhi­bi­tion — it’s mod­ern. I rec­og­nize the build­ing in Hrod­na used as a back­ground for Pavel Mazheika’s por­trait. I’m 99% sure I know exact­ly where it is. So this is also a rea­son to recall our native places, the ones we can­not return to.”

“They seem to have disappeared, but actually, we know their names and stories”

Kse­nia Mar­tul, a “New Belarus” con­fer­ence atten­dant:

“The exhi­bi­tion remind­ed me of com­put­er games, where a char­ac­ter can get ‘stuck’ in the tex­tures. Here, I see a sim­i­lar flaw in real­i­ty: jour­nal­ists should nev­er be impris­oned sim­ply for doing their jobs.

The project’s main idea is con­veyed very clear­ly — it’s about peo­ple who seem to have dis­ap­peared, but actu­al­ly, we know their names and sto­ries, and we know what hap­pened to them. I want to believe they will soon join us on the out­side.”

Kse­nia Mar­tul at the exhi­bi­tion “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” in War­saw. August 9, 2025. Pho­to: Author

“It’s impor­tant to present such exhi­bi­tions abroad — at inter­na­tion­al events, in places fre­quent­ed by the Belaru­sian dias­po­ra — because it is impos­si­ble to do so in Belarus itself. This is a way to remind peo­ple that these indi­vid­u­als were sim­ply doing their jobs and should not be pun­ished for it.”

Ihar Mich­nik, first direc­tor of Aus­tausch:

“The blend of abstrac­tion and gen­uine cap­tions beneath the pho­tographs reveals that behind the dig­i­tal images are real peo­ple whose lives were trans­formed by impris­on­ment for their work in sup­port of democ­ra­cy. This is not just a tech­ni­cal glitch to be fixed — it’s a real­i­ty that affects both soci­ety and indi­vid­u­als.”

Ihar Mich­nik at the exhi­bi­tion “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” in War­saw. August 9, 2025. Pho­to: Author

“The ‘glitch’ motif here rep­re­sents some­thing that should nev­er occur in the heart of Europe and serves as a reminder that even long-estab­lished free­doms can van­ish overnight.”

“I consider this exhibition special and want to show it in the USA”

Han­na Sharko, pres­i­dent of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Belaru­sians in USA:

“I was imme­di­ate­ly drawn to the exhi­bi­tion because it’s about the human sto­ries of those who often remain only as num­bers in reports on polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Behind each num­ber is a per­son who could be here among us: mod­er­at­ing a dis­cus­sion, pre­sent­ing their ideas, or work­ing as a jour­nal­ist.

We often don’t notice jour­nal­ists’ work while it’s hap­pen­ing, but with­out them we wouldn’t know what’s going on in the world. Those now in prison are there pre­cise­ly because of their pro­fes­sion. The pho­tographs in this exhi­bi­tion remind us: they haven’t dis­ap­peared, they are still present in our lives.”

BAJ exhi­bi­tion “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” in War­saw. August 9, 2025. Pho­to: Author

“I con­sid­er this exhi­bi­tion spe­cial and want to show it in the USA, because there the media is tra­di­tion­al­ly seen as the ‘fourth estate.’ In Belarus, how­ev­er, jour­nal­ists are often treat­ed as ‘dis­pos­able,’ and that’s very sad. With­out their work, I, liv­ing in the USA, would have no con­nec­tion to Belaru­sian real­i­ty. So I thank every­one who cre­at­ed this exhi­bi­tion and con­tin­ues their work under dif­fi­cult and dan­ger­ous con­di­tions.”

Marho Vorykha­va, youth and stu­dent affairs rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Unit­ed Tran­si­tion­al Cab­i­net of Belarus:

“Large-scale events, exhi­bi­tions, and oth­er ini­tia­tives that peo­ple can par­tic­i­pate in become an impor­tant way to express mass sup­port for polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Belarus. Even if many pris­on­ers do not imme­di­ate­ly receive these mes­sages, for­mer pris­on­ers say that after their release they read let­ters, saw exhi­bi­tions fea­tur­ing their sto­ries, and felt that they had not been for­got­ten.

Such projects sup­port not only those in cap­tiv­i­ty but also soci­ety as a whole, giv­ing peo­ple a safe way to join the sol­i­dar­i­ty effort and feel unit­ed despite exile or dan­ger in the coun­try.”

BAJ exhi­bi­tion “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” in War­saw. August 9, 2025. Pho­to: Author

“I think exhi­bi­tions like this are a great exam­ple of how we can remind both Belaru­sians and the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty about what is hap­pen­ing in our coun­try. In this sense, it’s very good that the cap­tions are in Eng­lish. This is a form of cul­tur­al diplo­ma­cy, a way to tell for­eign­ers what’s going on — and to remind them that such hor­rors are still hap­pen­ing in Belarus, and that jour­nal­ists are being repressed.”