'Lukashenka Is Just Petty Person Of Motherland Era'

The Belarusian artist admired in Berlin.

Cult Belarusian artist Ales Rodzin passed away on December 19. Charter97.org website remembers the great Belarusian together with coordinator of the European Belarus civil campaign Zmitser Bandarenka.

- You used to know Ales Rodzin. Tell us, what kind of man was he?

- I was lucky to know Ales since 1984. He was really an extraordinary person, but most importantly - a brilliant artist. He was a genius.

He is little known to the majority of Belarusians, but I can foretell that one day the significance of his work, the scale of his personality in art, will be truly appreciated. And one day they will say that Lukashenka was just a petty figure of the Motherland era.

For all that, Ales Rodzin was a very modest man, very friendly. Of course, he did not open up to everyone, but I have never heard him say anything bad about anyone.

Ales was a man dedicated to his work. He was not a classical artist, as there are stereotypes in films and books about artists, that they are supposed to be sociable people.

He did not like selling his works and did not give them away willingly. He said, "How can I part with my children?"

He was a workaholic and devoted himself fully to his work. Ales said that it did not matter how his works would sell, it never interested him. What was important to him was to be recognized professionally. Luckily, he had exhibitions in many European countries. He was recognised in Paris, Holland and at an exhibition of alternative art, Taheles in Berlin. He was a major star there for 15 years.

- Ales Rodzin has also done a lot for Belarusian culture. His exhibition dedicated to Tadeusz Reitan deserves a special notice.

- Like any great artist, he was very national in his work, and, of course, he was a visionary. We used to communicate quite closely over the years and I would say to him, "Sasha, look, now perestroika is underway, changes have been made, communism has been destroyed. Why are there only dark colors in your works? Why do a lot of people say that your paintings are gloomy? An artist can influence the world around him. Then our lives will change too".

And for years he used to say to me, "I can't see. I only see this kind of world around me". I said, "Listen, but an artist also has an impact on the world, especially an artist of such a scale. Start seeing the light around you too, then the world will change". He called me once and said: "Zmiter, I invite you to an exhibition, there will be an exhibition in Minsk, everything as you wanted, light colors, I invite you and Andrei Sannikov".

We went to that exhibition and it was really in such light colours, positive, in a very bright hall. Except that it was called 'Bridges of Paris'. Rodzin could see that light in Paris, but when he was in Belarus he saw it differently.

And I always understood that Ales was a visionary. When I read Daniil Andreev's book "The Rose of the World", a mystical book, I realized that Daniil Andreev saw the world in the same way our Ales Rodzin did. And I presented that book to Ales.

I know Ales was also friends with our famous, very deep poet Ales Razanau. And they were Belarusian visionaries, one in poetry, the other in the visual arts.

When Rodzin and his colleagues organized exhibitions about famous Belarusian nobleman Tadeusz Reitan, I was very surprised. We know that Reitan, in that terrible situation of the seizure of our common country, the first Rzeczpospolita, protested, lying down at the door of the Sejm, which was to approve the final partition of the country. His protest went down in history.

Then I realised that the time had come and I told my friends that if Rodzin held exhibitions depicting Reitan as a samurai, it meant that society had matured and there would be heroes, more samurais like him.

Ales Rodzin foresaw such people in his creative world and indeed this has happened. Then we had the events of 2017, the protests in Belarus, the centenary of the BPR and of course 2020. All of that had been seen by our great contemporary and that was how Ales was preparing those changes in the country, which I'm sure will come anyway. Through such a dark period, through a crisis, but it will inevitably happen.

- How is it possible that Ales Rodzin is unknown in Belarus, yet he has a whole army of admirers in Europe?

- This man had a very complicated personal life. When I met him in 1984 thanks to his spouse, his friend, his fellow-artist Liudmila Kalmayava, a famous Belarusian artist, Sasha was a very closed person, I would say rather unsociable.

Relatively recently I was arguing with a German acquaintance who said: "Rodzin - it's not creativity, it's not art at all". I was arguing with him and remembered that somewhere in the noughties there was an exhibition called "The Madness of Creation" at the Palace of Art. The huge premises of the Palace of Art had been given over to this exhibition. Thousands and thousands of people from all over Minsk, and later Belarus, came to the exhibition. People from neighboring countries, Ukraine and Russia also came to the exhibition. Because it was something out of the ordinary.

Art is at least a vortex of energy, some kind of energy whirlpools. There was such a strong reaction in society when with practically zero advertising, even zero information in media, people were telling each other that it was an exhibition of such magnitude.

An artist does not belong to one nation, an artist does not belong to one time. And perhaps his appearance in a particular place and at a particular time gives people the impetus for hundreds of years for people to assess the scale of his personality, his creativity and his impact on society. A person is very often noticed when he is not with us anymore.

I wanted to say that today is a doubly sad day for me because I found out that Liudmila Kalmayava, who introduced Ales to us, also passed away this year. Two people who had a great influence on my life, on my family. They were at my wedding many years ago and even made such an interesting gift: a gift box for the newlyweds. It is still with us and we know that it is a gift from close friends.