Yulia Krivich is a part of a burgeoning neighborhood of artists from across the former Soviet Union that has helped flip the Polish capital into a significant hub of inventive expertise, particularly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of her native Ukraine.

Krivich, who has lived in Poland for greater than a decade, now organises exhibitions, workshops and different occasions at Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art with the goal of confronting what she sees because the collective trauma of Russian colonialism. “We came here (to the museum) on the third day of the invasion and stayed. We like to call it the occupation of the Museum of Modern Art and the director is happy with the occupation,” Krivich, 34, joked.

“We came here to make banners for a protest at the Russian embassy and stayed,” she stated. Even earlier than Russian troops poured into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Poland had been internet hosting 1000’s of migrants from the east, together with individuals who fled a Moscow-backed rebellion in jap Ukraine and turmoil in Belarus and Central Asian states.

Poland, which borders Belarus and Ukraine, and was additionally as soon as a part of the Russian empire underneath the tsars after which of the Moscow-led Soviet bloc for many years – is an ideal place, in Krivich’s view, for artists to discover the theme of “decolonising Russia”. “Many of my friends from Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Belarus feel at home here, also mentally, culturally and ideologically… We have a common past,” Krivich informed Reuters.

THEATRE Warsaw can also be proving fertile territory for drama.

In the courtyard of Warsaw’s New Theatre, Marina Dashuk awaits the efficiency of her mentee Palina Dabravolskaya, a 27-year previous Belarusian director and actress finishing a residency for Belarusian artists launched in 2021. Dashuk, 44, has labored as a theatre producer in Poland since 2013, however it was solely after the crushing of anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020 that she centered on working with fellow Belarusian artists.

“When the revolution in Belarus began, artists started fleeing… Then (Russian-born playwright and director) Ivan Vyrypaev proposed making a theatre play with Belarusian actors and that is how our huge cooperation with the New Theatre began,” Dashuk stated. The play’s title “1.8m” refers back to the area obtainable to people in overcrowded Belarusian prisons. Directed by Vyrypaev, the efficiency relies on political prisoners’ court docket speeches and letters.

The New Theatre not solely gave the refugee actors an opportunity to carry out but in addition helped them with lodging and visas. Since then, different establishments have adopted swimsuit. “Poland is the only country where Belarusians can easily legalise their stay… All independent art initiatives that used to be in Minsk are now in Warsaw,” stated Dashuk.

Vyrypaev, 49, whose performs have been staged in additional than 250 theatres worldwide, has additionally launched a brand new undertaking in Warsaw – Teal House, staffed by Ukrainian and Belarusian refugees, affords actions starting from drama and music performances to yoga and trauma therapeutic. In May, a Moscow District Court arrested Vyrypaev in absentia for spreading “fake news” concerning the Russian military.

“These are incredibly tragic circumstances,” Vyrypaev stated, referring to the battle. “But Poland has a chance to become a real leader… of eastern Europe… It is a chance that should not be missed.”

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