A collective of Belarusian exile artists are bringing the atrocities of totalitarian oppression to the Venice Biennale, the largest contemporary art festival. Belarus Free Theatre, founded by dissidents who have suffered imprisonment and torture under dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s rule, is unveiling their inaugural visual art installation, titled Official. Unofficial. Belarus. The ambitious multimedia project, created in a Warsaw studio by artists, sculptors, composers and even a celebrated chef, transforms the sensory elements of authoritarian oppression into a immersive artistic experience. Rather than a traditional theatrical performance, the exhibition combines a sculpture made of banned books, wheat-based installations, a surveillance-equipped iron crucifix, and a bespoke food creation intended to capture the ordeal of confinement under an totalitarian state.
From persecution to pavilion
The passage from Belarus to Venice has been far from straightforward for Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin, the theatre group’s co-founders. Based in London since their exile in 2011, they have created some of the most provocative political drama, from the celebrated Being Harold Pinter to the Olivier-nominated opera Dogs of Europe. Yet representing their homeland at the most prestigious art festival remained a remote aspiration. Khalezin, himself a ex-curator, had once held aspirations to represent Belarus at Venice decades earlier, only to be informed by authorities that he could select artists only from an approved list. Under Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule since 1994, such creative freedom has remained impossible.
This year, though, the vision has finally become reality—but not through the founders themselves. Instead, their daughter Daniella Kaliada has stepped into charge, directing the entire installation. Moving through the Warsaw studio in a baseball cap and loafers, she carefully supervises every detail, from sanding newly purchased surveillance cameras to make them look aged, to liaising with international collaborators. Her active engagement reflects the project’s intimate character: sharing the hidden narratives of Belarusian suffering to the world stage, sidestepping the censorship and constraints that silenced her parents’ voices for so long.
- Khalezin formerly prevented from selecting independent Belarusian artists by state officials
- Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, imprisoning thousands of political opponents
- Daughter Daniella Kaliada now oversees the Venice Biennale installation project
- Inaugural visual art exhibition by Belarus Free Theatre, departing from theatre conventions
Building sensory trauma
The essence of confinement
Perhaps the most striking element of the installation is a bespoke dish created by Rasmus Munk, recently named the world’s leading chef. At his two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Copenhagen, Munk has been developing a course designed to evoke the physical and psychological experience of detention under an repressive regime. The dish constitutes a significant departure from standard culinary approaches, turning the act of eating into a political gesture. Visitors to the Venice Biennale will literally consume the flavour of oppression, making the exhibition’s core themes viscerally and unforgettably real.
Complementing the gustatory assault is a specially created aroma commissioned specifically for the installation. The fragrance has been designed to replicate an profoundly unsettling aroma: that of a freshly dug grave in the Belarus rural landscape during August’s end, adorned with decaying blooms. This sensory encounter transforms the gallery environment into an multisensory setting where visitors cannot remain detached observers. By engaging multiple senses simultaneously, the artists compel visitors to confront the brutal reality of state repression not as theoretical idea, but as lived, embodied trauma.
Acoustics and sculptural form
The auditory composition of Official. Unofficial. Belarus. weaves together organ music with the mechanical whir of an angle-grinder, creating an disquieting sonic landscape that disorients and provokes. This sound design accompanies monumental sculptures, including a tall iron cross crowned with weathered surveillance cameras—symbols of perpetual governmental surveillance and control. The interplay of sacred and profane imagery, coupled with the discordant soundtrack, produces a profoundly unsettling viewing experience. Every element has been intentionally selected to provoke, to remind visitors that in Belarus, even spiritual spaces offer no refuge from official oversight.
Central to the artistic story is Nicolai Khalezin’s controversial work: a massive ball built completely out of banned books. The sphere incorporates literary works forbidden under Lukashenko’s regime, such as children’s favourites like Harry Potter, Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich’s non-fiction, and an visual account of sexuality. This enormous sphere rests precariously upon the claw of a bulldozer—a visual metaphor for the regime’s systematic destruction of freedom of thought. The installation transforms censorship into physical reality, rendering the invisible machinery of repression suddenly, shockingly visible to global viewers.
- Custom scent mimics grave-like odours from Belarus rural landscape in late August
- Organ music and grinding machine noise create deliberately disorienting auditory landscape
- Surveillance cameras mounted on iron crucifix represent ongoing governmental surveillance and regulation
Personal cost of artistic resistance
For the creators behind Official. Unofficial. Belarus., this exhibition represents significantly beyond a curatorial undertaking or creative endeavour. Many of those involved have paid an extraordinary personal cost for their commitment to documenting and exposing state brutality. Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin fled Belarus in 2011 following years of harassment, imprisonment and torture at the hands of Lukashenko’s state apparatus. Their decision to create this piece at Venice’s most prestigious venue represents an act of defiance, transforming trauma into evidence. The exhibition becomes a tribute to those continuing to suffer under authoritarian governance, whilst also functioning as a warning to the worldwide community about the consequences of unchecked state power.
The troupe’s members carry invisible scars alongside their artistic vision. Several have experienced detention in Belarusian prisons enduring questioning and violent treatment for their performance art. Others have observed the disappearance of colleagues and friends into the machinery of state repression. Yet rather than silence them, these experiences have deepened their creative dedication. By bringing their stories to Venice, they ensure that the world cannot ignore the suffering of Belarus. The installation becomes an act of remembrance and resistance at once, paying tribute to those whose voices have been suppressed by force by the regime.
Sacrifices and endurance
The journey from political prisoner to globally recognised creator has been neither smooth nor without difficulty. Khalezin’s initial professional ambitions were blocked when state authorities sought to control which artists could act as representatives for Belarus on the global stage. His rejection of government control of creative work led to increasing surveillance and intimidation. The act of departing from his homeland was not made lightly; it entailed the sacrifice of professional networks, ties to loved ones, and the chance to ever creating independently in Belarus again. Yet this exile also gave the separation and protection required for producing increasingly bold political work.
Survival, for Belarus Free Theatre, has required transformation and growth. Headquartered in London, the company has continued producing confrontational performances whilst concurrently establishing international solidarity networks. The Venice Biennale constitutes a culmination of this survival strategy—reframing forced departure from a condition of loss into a place of creative strength. By refusing to be silenced or forgotten, these artists guarantee that Belarus stays prominent on the world stage, their work functioning as a constant testament that artistic expression should never be presumed anywhere.
Contesting international legitimacy
The Venice Biennale showcase carries deep political importance beyond its artistic merit. By displaying Belarus Free Theatre’s work on among the globe’s most esteemed cultural platforms, the installation actively undermines the international legitimacy that Alexander Lukashenko’s regime has consistently desired. The dictator has continually sought to depict Belarus as a stable, culturally vibrant nation worthy of global acknowledgement and commercial relationships. This exhibition methodically deconstructs that meticulously crafted facade, uncovering the reality of systematic repression, surveillance, and state violence that marks daily life under authoritarian rule.
The decision to present the work at Venice—rather than through conventional political channels or human rights groups—proves strategically important. Art holds a unique power to transcend conventional diplomatic limits and reach audiences who might otherwise dismiss political messaging as propaganda. By embedding accounts of torture, imprisonment, and fear within an immersive sensory encounter, the artists guarantee that international visitors cannot passively consume information about Belarus’s suffering. Instead, they are forced to confront the human cost of dictatorship through their bodies and emotions, producing enduring impressions that statistics and policy documents cannot achieve.
- The installation undermines regime’s international image and artistic legitimacy
- Physical encounter makes state oppression viscerally real for worldwide audiences
- Venice stage elevates exiled artists’ voices beyond standard political channels
Young people taking the lead
What makes this Venice project particularly striking is that it has been masterminded not by the theatre’s founding members, but by their daughter Daniella Kaliada. At an age when many of her peers are establishing conventional careers, she has taken the helm of one of the most ambitious artistic interventions at this year’s Biennale. Walking around the studio in a baseball cap and loafers, she carefully supervises every detail—from guaranteeing surveillance cameras are sanded to look weathered and authentic, to coordinating with international artists and chefs. Her direct engagement signals a generational passing of the torch, with younger exiles refusing to let their homeland’s struggles fade from global consciousness.
Daniella’s direction reflects a broader pattern among Belarus’s diaspora: young people who grew up under Lukashenko’s rule are now directing their experiences into art, activism, and cultural resistance. Rather than accepting exile as a setback, they are leveraging their displacement, converting trauma into witness. This intergenerational dedication ensures that Belarus stays a living concern rather than a past reference. By positioning young people at the heart of this artistic resistance, BFT demonstrates that the struggle against authoritarian rule is not limited to those who recall pre-dictatorship life, but extends equally to those formed wholly by oppression.