Lesia Pcholka

Snapshot Dialogue: LESIA PCHOLKA, ULADZIMIR HRAMOVICH BY SASHA RAZOR ARTMargins @artmargins_printandonline hosts a series of short dialogues between critics and curators from Eastern Europe. This conversation between Researcher of art migration from Belarus, Sasha Razor @dr_sasha_razor (Los Angeles) and Berlin-based Belarusian artists Lesia Pcholka and Uladzimir Hramovich focuses on the artists’ engagement with the tumultuous events during the 2020 protests in Belarus that followed a contested presidential election and led to widespread political repression. Many artists found themselves at the forefront of these events, using their art as a form of protest and documentation : artmargins.com

List of places to buy the photo book DESCENT INTO THE MARSH : Encounters Berlin @encounters.hongkong 🇩🇪 B Books @b_books_verlag Berlin 🇩🇪 Skaryna Press @skarynapress online 🇬🇧 + 🌏 Bęc Zmiana @bec_ksiegarnia Warsaw 🇵🇱 + 🌏 If you would like to have this book for a public library, please email me at [email protected] Designed by @swamp.center Karolina Pietrzyk @chrustchrustchrust and Tobias Wenig @tobiaswenig . Edited by Black Seeds in Hong Kong, curator Katarzyna Zielinska @katar_pitu

PL [BEL w komentarzu] Nowa książka VEHA “Ruiny Białorusi”, która połączyła zdjęcia zrujnowanego dziedzictwa architektonicznego Białorusi. Publikacja została wydana przez Galerię Arsenał @galeria_arsenal ISBN 978-83-66262-30-0 razem z Centrum Kultury Białoruskiej w Białymstoku @centrumbialoruskie ISBN 978-83-972232-6-4 Autorka koncepcji, kuratorka projektu, fotoedytorka: Lesia Pcholka @lestvoidom . Katalogowanie i opisy architektury: Asia Chmyz. Autor eseju i redakcja opisów architektury: Uładzimir Hramovich @hramnica . Konsultanci: region witebski – Kastuś Šytal, region homelski – Yauhen Malikau, region grodzieński – Stepan Stureiko, region mohylewski – Alieh David Lisoŭski. Projekt graficzny: Karolina Pietrzyk @chrustchrustchrust , Tobias Wenig @tobiaswenig . Książka zostanie wydana w trzech językach: angielskim, białoruskim i polskim. Tłumaczenie z języka białoruskiego na polski i angielski, redakcja tekstów białoruskich: @stowarzyszenie.mova . Redakcja językowa (polski), korekta (polski i angielski): Ewa Borowska, Marlena Zagórska. VEHA – to niezależne białoruskie archiwum fotograficzne, które łączy działalność artystyczną i badawczą, koncentrując się na tematyce codzienności. Archiwum online służy jako platforma do gromadzenia i analizowania wizualnej historii Białorusi. Książka “Ruiny Białorusi” jest zaproszeniem w podróż, podczas której można zobaczyć, jak zniszczenie stało się jedną z cech białoruskiej kultury. Książkę można kupić w sklepie @galeria_arsenal ul. Adama Mickiewicza 2, w Białymstoku oraz online na stronie @kamunikat.books_and_life 🔗 https://kamunikat.shop/продукт/ruiny-bielarusi/

One of the central future challenges — political and ecological — is how to live under constant threat or even within a state of nuclear catastrophe. One possible response is found in Lesia Pcholka’s work “Apocalypse Pillow.” In this work, catastrophe is understood not as a singular event but as a prolonged, almost imperceptible condition permeating everyday life. Through imagery of forests, fungi, and mycelium, the artist turns to decentralized forms of life and memory — those without a center, spreading invisibly and connecting disparate elements into networks. A key reference is the fungus Cladosporium sphaerospermum, found in high-radiation environments including the ruins of the Charnobyl nuclear power plant. Containing melanin, it can absorb ionizing radiation and convert it into energy — a process known as radiosynthesis. This biological phenomenon becomes an allegory: like mycelium, the memory of catastrophe spreads nonlinearly, invisibly, through everyday practices, language, and embodied experience. It has no clear boundaries but continues to connect individual and collective histories. Apocalypse Pillow proposes a soft, supportive form — like a seat or cushion — as a way of existing within catastrophe: not by overcoming it, but through adaptation, transformation, and the creation of new connections. Like the radiotrophic fungus, it suggests that catastrophe can be understood not only as destruction but as a condition from which new forms of life emerge — capable of metabolizing catastrophe, both political and ecological, and reclaiming the future.

Lesia Pcholka is a research-based artist. She is founder and CEO of the Independent Civil Photo Archive (VEHA) @veha.archive , a public platform preserving vernacular photography from Belarus. Her work shows how, in authoritarian settings where archives are censored or inaccessible, personal and community archives can safeguard culture and heritage. After taking part in the 2020–2021 protests in Belarus, Lesia was arrested and forced into exile. In exile, she continues to grow VEHA as a platform for historical research and contemporary art, fostering dialogue on memory, identity and resistance, and challenging state-controlled narratives. VEHA demonstrates the power of bottom-up archiving to document lived experiences and challenge official versions of history, and it offers a framework for grassroots heritage preservation that others working in politically constrained environments can build on. Lesia's aim is to strengthen the VEHA Archive, broaden its public outreach, and amplify the voices of the Belarusian opposition in exile.

Photobook Feature: Descent Into The Marsh by Lesia Pcholka By highlighting the universal human quest for freedom and dignity, @lestvoidom uses photographs from Belarus and Hong Kong to explore protests, shared symbols, horizontal tactics, digital surveillance and repression. You can discover Lesia’s book in our photobook-dedicated section: phmuseum.com/photobooks #phmuseum #photobook #lesiapcholka

I will be taking part in the 11th Annual London Conference on Belarusian Studies on 9 May. Section: Libraries and Archives. Moderator: Dr Karalina Matskievich. With Dasha Lis and Dr Maria Katarzyna Prenner. More information and tickets are available : /arts-humanities/events/2026/may/11th-annual-london-conference-belarusian-studies On March 15, I invite you to the @skarynalibrary for the presentation of the book VEHA : Ruins of Belarus Photo: 1930s, Budslaŭ, Miadzieĺ District, Minsk Region. Stanislaŭ Noravič (seated) with a friend. Provided by me. From VEHA archive @veha.archive

We warmly invite you to the exhibition opening “Half-Life: 40 Years After Charnobyl — The Belarusian Fallout” opens. The project of contemporary art brings together artists from Belarus who were born after the Charnobyl disaster and whose lives and artistic experiences have been shaped by its long-term consequences. The curatorial concept draws on the notion of “half-life” as a metaphor for the prolonged impact of the catastrophe on memory, bodies, and identity. Through installations, video works, and artistic objects, the project explores how Charnobyl continues to exist in personal stories, collective memory, and the cultural imagination. The exhibition creates a space for critical reflection on the disaster and highlights the Belarusian perspective within the contemporary geopolitical context. Artists: Uladzimir Hramovich Daria Sazanovich Yuliya Tsviatkova Kristina Satsina Lesia Pcholka Parallel program: Julia Cimafiejeva Oxana Gurinovitch Opening 24th April 18:00 daily open from 12:00 - 18:00 Uq-Bar-A-Ba Schwedenstr. 16 13357 Berlin _____________ Founded by the European Union. Art Power Belarus

Lesia Pcholka (b. 1989s) is a research-based artist working across photography, video, and installation. Her practice brings together archival methods, collective memory, and historical continuities to explore how the past shapes contemporary life in Belarus and beyond, with particular attention to tensions between official narratives and undocumented histories. At the exhibition, Pcholka presents Apocalypse Pillow, an installation accompanied by a zine dedicated to mushrooms. The project draws on embodied memory and intergenerational knowledge connected to the experience of the Charnobyl disaster. In Belarus, the invisible borders between contaminated and 'clean' zones persist in everyday practices such as mushroom picking, where knowledge about radiation is informally transmitted. Pcholka’s personal narrative intertwines with these collective experiences: childhood memories of forests and mushroom-picking seasons reveal a reality in which the catastrophe has become part of everyday life. A key reference in the project is the radiotrophic fungus Cladosporium sphaerospermum, which was discovered in the Charnobyl zone.

On April 24 in Berlin, the exhibition “Half-Life: 40 Years After Charnobyl — The Belarusian Fallout” opens. The project of contemporary art brings together artists from Belarus who were born after the Charnobyl disaster and whose lives and artistic experiences have been shaped by its long-term consequences. The curatorial concept draws on the notion of “half-life” as a metaphor for the prolonged impact of the catastrophe on memory, bodies, and identity. Through installations, video works, and artistic objects, the project explores how Charnobyl continues to exist in personal stories, collective memory, and the cultural imagination. The exhibition creates a space for critical reflection on the disaster and highlights the Belarusian perspective within the contemporary geopolitical context. Artists: Uladzimir Hramovich Daria Sazanovich Yuliya Tsviatkova Kristina Satsina Lesia Pcholka Parallel program: Julia Cimafiejeva Oxana Gurinovitch 📍UQ-BAR-A-BA Schwedenstraße 16, 13357 Wedding, Berlin 🗓 Opening: 24 April at 18:00 On view: till 15 May (12-6 pm) @hramnica @sheeborshee @plus0.001 @lestvoidom @cimafiejeva

SOFTSHELL ARCHIPEL Gallery FÜNFZIGZWANZIG @galerie5020 Salzburg, AT. On view from 10.04.2026 Curated by Hoast @hoastprojects (Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair & Wolfgang Obermair) Group exhibition with @e.shapiroobermair @wolfgang_obermair @lestvoidom Vasco Costa @bog_dana_aqua__kosmina_ukraina @hramnica @jason_r_bunton @sashaauer Photos by Andrew Phelps Buffet @andrew_phelps_buffet more info: /programm/softshell-archipel

Within 2025 we had an honour to work on RUINS OF BELARUS / Руіны Беларусі / Ruiny Białorusi Edited by VEHA ARCHIVE. Concept author, project curator, photo editor, introduction by Lesia Pcholka @lestvoidom . Cataloging, library search and architecture descriptions: Asia Chmyz. Author of the essay and editor of architectural descriptions: Uladzimir Hramovich @hramnica . Translation from Belarusian into Polish and English, copy editing of Belarusian texts: STOWARZYSZENIE MOVA – JĘZYK BEZ BARIER. Copy editing (Polish), proofreading (Polish and English): Ewa Borowska, Marlena Zagórska Format: 240 × 320 mm. Pages: 256 Cover: Munken Lynx 400g. Inside pages: Munken Print White, 115g Typeface: East of Rome / Tekst, ABC Dinamo / ABC Social Published by Galeria Arsenał w Białymstoku @galeria_arsenal , ul. A. Mickiewicza 2, 15-222 Białystok, Poland and Centrum Kultury Białoruskiej w Białymstoku, ul. J. Kilińskiego 16 lok. 2/07, 15-089 Białystok, Poland ISBN 978-83-66262-30-0 Galeria Arsenał w Białymstoku ISBN 978-83-972232-6-4 Centrum Kultury Białoruskiej w Białymstoku Printed by Moś and Łuczak, Poznań, Poland