Transformation. Metarealism in the Byelorussian Photography of 1980s–1990s

The exhibition explores the oeuvre of Alexander Uglianitsa, Viktor Kalenik and Alexei Trufanov, the members of the art group Meta, founded in Minsk in 1983.

21.01.2023—19.03.2023

Being a part of ROSPHOTO’s 20th Anniversary Program the current exhibition explores the oeuvre of Alexander Uglianitsa, Viktor Kalenik and Alexei Trufanov, the members of the art group Meta, founded in Minsk in 1983. The display comprises more than 140 original photographs from ROSPHOTO’s collection and thus is the first showcase ever to feature the most comprehensive selection of the works by the legendary Minsk-based artists.

The art group’s development was inseparable from the historical processes that started in the USSR in the late 1970s. The society was greatly influenced by the newly emerging youth associations which exercised various forms of creativity: music, photography, literature and art in order to widen their world outlook. Unlike their fathers, who had lost hope of escaping the stagnation, the new generation was in search of new visions and ideas. At that time the most active part of youngsters started travelling around the country to share and gain creative experience. Not only Moscow and Leningrad enjoyed a thriving cultural life: many new and important artistic centers also began to appear at the universities in the capitals of the Soviet republics.

And that was how the to-be members of Meta group met each other. In 1983 Alexander Uglianitsa, a native of Stavropol, and Viktor Kalenik, a native of Minsk, the 5th-year students of the Byelorussian State Theater and Art Institute met Alexei Trufanov who arrived from Ukraine to enter the Design Faculty of the same Institute.

The crucial lack of visual images was one of the major reasons that young artists and designers began to turn to photography in the 1980s. Any new visual information aroused their great interest and stimulated further searching. Thus, photography was perceived as an instrument that provided the artists with endless opportunities for creating new images.

The exhibition is dedicated to the artistic development of the three photographers whose works became a milestone in the history of Byelorussian art photography.