13 October 2022 The Vanvitelliano full to hear the two authors' message. The exhibition "The Last Soviet Artist".
"My wish,' says Victoria Lomasko, 'is to contribute a revolutionary impulse to change things in Russia, as the artists did during the Revolution that ousted the Tsar. Badiucao's message has the same intensity: 'I fight against the Chinese regime with art, so that my compatriots will know freedom and democracy. Yesterday afternoon, the Vanvitellian hall of the Loggia was packed with citizens who came to meet the Russian artist, see their Chinese colleague and listen to both. A sort of ideal passing of the baton between the protagonist of last year's exhibition "China (is) not near" and the interpreter of "The last Soviet artist", which will be held on 11 November, also at Santa Giulia. Two exhibitions (curated by Elettra Stamboulis) in collaboration with the Peace Festival, the Municipality and the Fondazione Brescia Musei. BresciaMusei is a convinced participant. "Artistic language is universal,' commented its president FrancescaBazoli, speaking at the evening, 'an ideal tool for talking about human and civil rights. The voice of dissident artists, Badiucao emphasised, 'helps to shake consciences, to sound the alarm' about what happens where freedom is denied. As in China and Russia, precisely. Badiucao says he is "worried that the world may face, in addition to the war in Ukraine, a conflict in the South China Sea" over the possession of Taiwan. "This could happen without the world realising it first'. The best way for this "not to happen is to support the voice that wants to change things in China". Next month, Badiucao's exhibition, hosted last year in Brescia, will be presented in the European Parliament.
Victoria Lomasko's exhibition (open until 8 January) has the title of the last book of the Russian exile, "The Last Soviet Artist", finished three weeks before the invasion in Ukraine. Victoria is an artist and writer, she integrates words and images, text with photos and drawings. The book tells stories of protest from 2012 to last year. "I draw at the place of events, following their rhythm', explains Lomasko.
Soviet. She calls herself the last Soviet Soviet "because I am part of the last generation born with the USSR and because my father used to draw the propaganda of the regime'. He was a draughtsman and in order to exercise this profession "he drew the face of Lenin, whom he hated. Today he is against Putin'. On the other on the other hand, emphasises Lomasko one must not forget that the Soviet period was a varied diverse: there was official art, "but also that of the gulags and of artists forced to hide their works". The demonstrations anti-Putin demonstrations by feminists and nationalists in 2012, the 2014 protests against the annexation of Crimea by by Russia, those of 2016 in Belarus against President Lukashenko and in 2021 in favour of the opponent Navalny: with his art Victoria Lomasko has given voice and image to those who died disappeared into thin air, imprisoned or rendered silent by fear. In the exhibition there will also be works created expressly for the occasion. One, in particular, reflecting on collective responsibility of the people towards the war in Ukraine. "In Russia there are several nationalities and societies, and among among them could even break out a civil war," says Victoria. A composite world in which those who are aware of the situation is a minority, where young people and generations that grew up with the USSR are in conflict. Brescia, emphasise the mayor Emilio Del Bono and the deputy Laura Castelletti, welcomes dissident voices and "art awakens consciences", reaffirms the president of the Festivaldella pace, Roberto Cammarata. "Our city contributes to the defence of freedom of rights".
