02 Aug 2010
Belarus Inside Out
Belarus Inside Out
The Internet community in Belarus is quite big but still resembles a village where everyone knows everyone. People, who are active in by-net, live all around the world and often meet others who live in different countries. And that makes the network of interesting, creative, motivated and a bit crazy people even bigger. Which is great! Especially when one puts such a challenging goal in front of themselves as to turn a whole country inside-out, and uncover what is hidden under the layers of mass media stereotypes.
Belarus Inside Out is the name of a cross-boarder project we were involved since the summer of 2009. This is a result of work of young people from Belarus and many other European countries with Belarus being the main subject.
BIO project is exactly the result of such a “village” effect. Some people who happened to know each other and be involved in different online youth projects decided that it would be an interesting idea to get together, form groups which would include at the same time someone from Belarus and someone outside, assign each group a topic to research and make a magazine out of their reports.
The project took place thanks to the work of GenerationBY and a European youth online magazine Plotki.org. Via the wide network of connections the project united young photographers, journalists, writers and bloggers from Greece, the UK, Germany, France, Romania, Austria and Belarus. After a seminar in Belarus where people got to know each other a bit better and discussed the topics which would be most interesting for the research, groups were formed and they set out for a one week research trip. And after a couple of months of writing, editing, translating, formatting and general stressing out – it was ready! A 96-page magazine was published with all the materials in English and excerpts in Belarusian! On top of that soon there will be a project web-page which will present the results in an interactive form. Until then you can download a pdf. version of the magazine.
Kathrin Janka from the Editorial Board in Berlin gives you a feeling of how it tastes:
Can exile really be hereditary? Would it be a good idea to turn Miensk into a museum of Soviet architecture? What is left of the huge swamp system that once covered a third of Belarus’ territory? What is the price of a free university education? Is the Belarusian village dying or being revived by young families moving to newly founded eco villages? What situation are female pensioners facing in Belarus today? Who are the young, well educated civil and cultural activists that form the face of this post-Soviet country – which, beyond, in spite of, political restriction? Is there such a thing as Belarusian identity today?
If you want to know the answers to these questions – check the pdf. file at bio.generation.by
Below are photos from the project presentation which took place in Berlin in February. Presentation in Belarus is planned for early autumn together with launching of the project web-page which will include full texts in both languages.
The Internet community in Belarus is quite big but still resembles a village where everyone knows everyone. People, who are active in by-net, live all around the world and often meet others who live in different countries. And that makes the network of interesting, creative, motivated and a bit crazy people even bigger. Which is great! Especially when one puts such a challenging goal in front of themselves as to turn a whole country inside-out, and uncover what is hidden under the layers of mass media stereotypes.
Belarus Inside Out is the name of a cross-boarder project we were involved since the summer of 2009. This is a result of work of young people from Belarus and many other European countries with Belarus being the main subject.
