Solidarity with Maria Kalesnikava

Monday, November 3, 2025

STUTTGART

9:00 p.m.

Theater Rampe
Rakete
Filderstrasse 47
70180 Stuttgart

Free admission

Maria Kalesnikava, founder of the Stuttgart cultural association INTERAKT, is imprisoned as a political prisoner in Belarus. The evening will be organized by her companions in Stuttgart and will include a conversation with Olga Bubich, a Belarusian essayist currently living in exile in Berlin. She will talk about common myths about Belarus that she encounters in Germany:

How much do we know and how much do we not know about our closest Eastern European neighbor? How do we imagine its history, its linguistic and political situation? To what extent do we rely on memories of the Soviet past and fragmentary media reports to form a picture of who the Belarusians are? Olga shares her experiences and impressions and presents facts and statistics from Belarus' past and present.

Olga Bubich (Belarus/Germany) is an essayist focusing on research into collective memory and Europe's traumatic past, a visual artist with two published photo books, and a lecturer with over 15 years of teaching experience.

With contributions from:

Yauhenia Dougaya

Nikola Lutz

Natasha López

Viktoriia Vitrenko

Thursday, 12/05/2024

STUTTGART

5 pm

HMDK Stuttgart
OPR / Wandelhalle level 8
Urbanstrasse 25
70187 Stuttgart

with

Nikola Lutz - installation
Duo YonX, Lukax Santana - excerpts from zek #3
Contributions by students
Speeches

Nikola Lutz, professor of saxophone at the HMDK and Kalesnikava's colleague in the Stuttgarter Kollektiv für aktuelle Musik e.V., has been working continuously since Kalesnikava's arrest to keep her memory alive. The HMDK Stuttgart has now had two showcases designed by Prof. Nikola Lutz, which represent Kalesnikava's fate on the premises of the HMDK and bring it to the attention of future generations.

The installation also allows students to interactively engage with Maria Kalesnikava, her courage and her fate. During the interdisciplinary project week with the ABK Stuttgart under the direction of Prof. Nikola Lutz and Prof. Britta Wirthmüller, artistic contributions will be developed. The already existing petition “Freedom for Maria Kalesnikava #FreeMaria”, which already has more than 56.000 signatures, will also be brought back to the center of attention:

www.change.org/p/freiheit-für-maria-kalesnikava-freemaria-heikomaas-europarl-de-ep-president-vonderleyen

At the opening of the exhibition, Nikola Lutz, together with the Chilean musicians Lukax Santana and César Bernal, will present excerpts from the program “zek #3”, which deals with texts by Maxim Znak, who as Kalesnikava's lawyer was also sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Saturday 11/30/2024

STUTTGART

8 pm

Gedok Stuttgart
Hölderlinstrasse 17
70174 Stuttgart

Admission free!

zek [зек - Russian for convict] deals with texts written in prison by Maxim Znak and other authors, which form a thread from prisoners to freedom, to self-determined communication, to their survival and our knowledge of their situation. In zek #3, they encounter the life story of Lukax Santana, who himself was a political prisoner in Chile and then lived in exile in the UK for a long time. César Bernal's contribution is a reminder of traditional methods of maintaining hope and identity.

with

Lukax Santana [conception, percussion]
César Bernal [conception, double bass]
Nikola Lutz [saxophone, electronics]

An event by S-K-A-M e.V. as part of “black box_blank page” - a series of events on aspects of memory with concerts, workshops, installations and participatory projects

with the kind permission of the publishers vremja and Scotland Street Press
English translation by Jim and Ella Dingley

Supported by: S-K-A-M e.V., City of Stuttgart and Musikfonds