‘Human factor’

Exhibition of Svetlana Zhigimont opened at the Palace of Arts

We have been waiting for this exhibition for a long time. Caring readers called the editorial office with the question ‘Well, when?’, a concept was shaped little by little, new works dried on easels in the artist’s studio... And finally, all of them were placed on the walls in one of the halls of the Palace of Arts: the Human Factor exhibition by Svetlana Zhigimont is officially open and waiting for visitors. We responsibly declare: it will be very interesting.

Svetlana Zhigimont

The exposition is quite compact, there are only 22 works, the artist could significantly expand it, her personal funds contain many, for example, beautiful still lifes, but... the main characters of the exhibition are people, their light and dark sides. Actually, the exposition is clearly divided into these two sides. And in the first part of the exhibition, we see portraits of relatives and friends painted with love, the baptism of a baby, an Orthodox priest who takes care of numerous homeless cats — in a word, life in all its manifestations. On the dark side, we are met by all the most painful, difficult, terrible: the famous Women’s March, and the August 9th painting, and the sensational Vyshyvanka Holiday, dedicated to the dead children of Donbass.


The dark and light sides are separated by a new work — Triptych, a series of three paintings, personifying the confrontation between light and dark, the forces of good and evil. Guardian Angel of the Disgraced Protodeacon

“Triptych is dedicated to the events of 2020 and the present. The main character is the President of Belarus, I depicted him leaning on a strong, powerful oak, growing roots in the Belarusian soil. This is the personification of both our traditions and the character of the hero, his strong personality. The background, the distant plan is a metaphor that tells our story: how we lived and live. Here is a city, and a village, and tractors, and grazing cows, and a church... The villagers work, children play, and the sun shines on all of them. There is more earth in this picture than the sky, since Aleksandr Grigorievich gravitates towards the earth, he does not walk in the clouds,” Svetlana Zhigimont reveals her idea.

Requiem for the Unloved

But the two side canvases are a conditional ‘underworld’, a hellfire. And here the artist depicted characters from among the self-exiled extremists. The forces of evil, trying to harm our bright, sunny world with their black thoughts. These are the antipodes of the main character, in a sense they are all demons. 
The exhibition of Svetlana Zhigimont is not only an artistic, but also a civic statement, sharp and uncompromising.
There is indeed a lot of grotesque in these images, but the author did not draw caricatures — rather, she even embellished some of the characters a little, they are much prettier on canvas than in their natural form.

Mother. Donbass 2021.

The artist does not hide her emotions, “In 2020, we all, including myself, have seen enough of offensive images that humiliate our President. I was so offended! I do not like such injustice, so I portrayed the self-exiled opposition with pleasure. But I didn’t spoil or disfigure anyone on purpose. All of them are exactly the same as in the photos and video.”
From irony to the terrible: the exposition ends with paintings dedicated to the events in Ukraine. They contain the past of Ukraine and the future that was prepared for Belarus. Clearly, without embellishment, without hushing up. On the whole, the exhibition of Svetlana Zhigimont is not only an artistic, but also a civil statement, sharp and uncompromising.

By Irina Ovsepyan
Photos by Darya Titova