Safemuse welcomes artist Zhanna Gladko

Safemuse welcomes its first artist in residence of 2022, Zhanna Gladko from Belarus, who arrived in Oslo in the middle of May for her six-month residence program.

– My first weeks in Oslo have been inspiring for me. It is my first time in Norway and I am interested in the cultural context and history of the country. I was struck by the contrast to the situation I experienced and observed in Minsk, where every single day is a complex psychological ‘game’. This contrasts with the atmosphere here, where the surrounding nature immerses you in a state of being “above it all”. Being away for a while from the events in Minsk and Belarus helps to restore the necessary life and professional resources, Gladko says.  

Gladko says she applied for the residency to be able to have at least a short-term time slot to have some distance from the events in Belarus, to be able to reflect and systematise the materials she has collected for several years, as well as to accumulate observations and materials as an artist-practitioner in new circumstances. Most of the projects that Gladko is involved in are thematically linked to the revolutionary events in Belarus, the protest movement and dramatic events in Ukraine. This focus, which has attracted worldwide attention to the problems of her home country, gives her an opportunity to become visible and highlight the themes and issues that Belarusian artists have raised in their works for many years already. 

– I would like to share my experience, artistic practice and knowledge of Belarusian contemporary art with the local art community in Oslo. Staying in Oslo will help me to revise my accumulated material, which I am preparing for future projects. It will make it possible to switch from being in the epicentre of events, which is now Minsk, to the necessary sober professional distance, help me plan my future activities and deepen my future artistic expression, Gladko says. 

During the residency Gladko looks forward to meeting with representatives of the professional community and to create an artistic statement as a result of her practice and work in the studio. She also plans to visit museums, galleries, and cultural centres in the city in order to learn about the specifics of culture, history, ethnography, and geography in order to interact and immerse into the local context.

– A brilliant artist

Safemuse is pleased to have its new residency program in Oslo up and running and extends its gratitude to the City of Oslo and its enthusiastic politicians backing up this idea, as well as to partner Nordic Black Theatre and others who have been involved so far and supported the initiative. Safemuse’s founder and general manager, Jan Lothe Eriksen, is very pleased to welcome Zhanna Gladko to the residence program in Oslo. 

– It is great having the brilliant visual artist from Belarus, Zhanna Gladko, as the very first guest artist in the new Oslo Safe Artistic Haven program. A real honour. She has been an active artist in her home environment, internationally recognized, and we do hope she will have a fruitful stay here, develop new contacts and also inspire us all through the programs and presentations we will organise. 

Awaiting a second artist in residence

Safemuse was supposed to have welcomed two international residence artists this spring, however Zhanna Gladko is so far the only one to have began her residency.

 – It is very frustrating that both residence candidates did not arrive at the same time this spring. That was our plan. But visa processing these days is completely unpredictable. I wish I could say that this seems to be resolved quickly, but this is unfortunately not the case. It is a tragedy that these processes are so immensely convoluted, time-consuming and Kafka-like in a modern democratic and highly efficient Norway. Safemuse will continue to work for real change and much better facilitation in the processing of short term residence permits for artists – so that Norway’s practice gets in line with the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity, explains Jan Lothe Eriksen. 

An up-and-coming belarusian artist

Zhanna Gladko (1984) is a graduate of the Republican College of Arts in Minsk and the Department of Easel Graphics at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts. Since 2010, she has been involved in a variety of professional activities including numerous exhibitions. In her artistic works, Gladko seeks to construct ambivalent images, rethinking and deconstructing extensive concepts, such as the system of art and society, religion and culture, history and memory, gender policy, the analysis of the role of contemporary museums and the subject of identity crisis. Gladko deliberately and simultaneously highlights and actualises these societal issues by exploring them through her private experiences and by means of photography, installations, text, video, painting and other visual techniques. 

– My art practice for the past two years has been concerned with the processes that are taking place in contemporary society. In 2020-2021, I was able to participate in a number of exhibition projects that were related to rethinking the events that took place in Belarus. My program series is the Inciting Force cycle, which initially focused on the analysis of conflictual relationships with the father. Later the series expanded considerably, both medially and thematically: the main focus became the study of mechanisms, power relations in the social field, the gender dimension, in culture, interpersonal relations, etc. The issue of conflict and the dialogue of divergent or antagonist systems is a direction I keep exploring. Collective history always makes its way to a person’s life as a part of one’s personal history. In my opinion, now we are living in times when it is a personal action that can actually make a difference, Gladko explains. 

The autobiographical angle has become important for Gladko’s practice. She considers the personal story as something that can be correlated with any system: art, religion, or politics. In her art she aims to demonstrate the principle of social relations on a global level by exploring how the sphere of private life manifests itself in certain political, economic, social, and ideological contexts. 

– We are living in challenging historical times with the Overton Window constantly shifting in society. And it is the issues of distortion, deformation, changes in space and in the information field, fracture and fragmentation, constant rewriting of memory and past events, in the course of which history turns into the phantom. As an artist, I am interested in observing, examining, and recording these processes, Gladko says. 

– Of course, my observations, as well as my creative and analytical research need the opportunity to move freely, travel and interact with other people and communities, to speak openly on various topics without fear of persecution, restriction of freedom or violence. This is extremely difficult in the complicated political situation in Belarus, where all independent cultural initiatives have been closed down and eliminated, Gladko reflects.