Gladko / Davis: The Sun Through Trees

The video was created from fragmented recordings that the artist found on her mobile phone. These are videos recorded by Zhanna Gladko in 2020 during the Freedom March protest on August 16 in Minsk, as well as videos made during the group trip with the artists to the art plein air in autumn 2020 in Kaptaruny farm. The artist used fragments of scrappy video footage, as well as random footage when she forgot to turn off her phone. The video is shown through the screen of the artist's broken mobile phone.
This video is a reference to the events taking place in Belarus, mass protests and detentions, as well as a prism of Zhanna Gladko's personal view of what is happening.

The 2020 revolution in Belarus is characterized by modern communication technologies, a large number of video and photo evidence of the lawless actions of the authorities, which appeared on the Internet thanks to the spread of information from professional photographers in social networks, as well as numerous amateur videos of peaceful citizens. Protests continue despite obstacles and a ban on filming and protesting, mass detentions, confiscation of mobile phones and other equipment, and constant wiretapping and monitoring of personal correspondence by the security services. Any photo or video can become the reason for detention, imprisonment, torture of a person in Belarus.

Another topic that concerns the artist is the protest symbols. A special feature of the marches in Minsk was the small but nevertheless important appearance of LGBTQ+ community flags along with the national symbol – the white-red-white flag, which is currently banned in Belarus.

video: Zhanna Gladko
music: Gareth Davis