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Polesie-inspired paintings by German artist Hermann Buss to go on display in Minsk

MINSK, 26 August (BelTA) – An exhibition of German artist Hermann Buss titled “Polessje Elegie. Das verlorene Land” (Polesie Elegy. The Lost Land) will open at the National Center for Contemporary Arts on 11 September, BelTA learned from Deputy Director for Arts of the center Olesya Inozemtseva.

Large-size paintings by Hermann Buss will show how the Chernobyl catastrophe of 26 April 1986 changed the land and people. “The artworks that will go on display were created after the artist visited the exclusion zone in Belarus. The exhibition is a wide-reaching survey of the Chernobyl disaster and its aftermath 30 years later. At first Hermann Buss came to Belarus as a volunteer. He was impressed by the beauty of the Polesie region as he toured the exclusion zone. His second visit was thoroughly planned. The artist came here to study abandoned villages and people who chose to stay in the exclusion zone (they were depicted in his paintings, too). This exhibition is a display of realistic artworks with a strong social message,” Olesya Inozemtseva said.

In his travel notes from 2017 Hermann Buss recorded how Belarusian villages changed over 30 years without people. “The way the abandoned houses were overtaken by nature is just as natural as the way these houses fit into the natural surroundings. The nature is peacefully reclaiming these desolate places. A slow, peaceful death of human civilization. My paintings depict the collapse of an established synthesis between people, architecture and art, they show the dignity and loss of this interconnection,” the artist said.

The exhibition will stay open through 29 September.

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