A tribute to Mariya Kalesnikava

04/24/2025-08/31/2025

STUTTGART

vhs Stuttgart
Treffpunkt Rotebühlplatz

Mariya Kalesnikava has been a political prisoner in Belarus since 2000, along with 1,500 other people. The harsh prison conditions have affected her health to such an extent that we fear for her life. In this situation, Nikola Lutz launched the Internet platform freemascha.org in 2022 and the mem.cont.act project in 2023. Both projects keep her memory alive in the public sphere. mem.cont.act created a resonance space through an installation in public space, where participants could contribute their own words and images live on site or via the internet. Many of these were created under political conditions that made it impossible to speak publicly. Sprachrohr presents a selection of such contributions, as well as statements by the prisoners themselves, touching testimonies of creativity and will to live that reached us in the form of letters or pictures and tell of psychological survival in prison. Among them are 10 letters by Kalesnikava and 3 paintings by the Chilean musician Lukax Santana, who was also a political prisoner during the Pinochet dictatorship. The exhibition also includes a poem by Natasha López, calligraphies by Ichizu Hashimoto and commentaries by mem.cont.act participants from around the world.

Sprachrohr is a collection of individual commentaries on a situation of massive use of violence as a political method. From simple outcries to astute analyses of the highest artistic quality, they are all united by the absolute necessity to break the silence. In the face of injustice and the feeling of sheer overwhelming powerlessness, Sprachrohr keeps a space of communication open and prevents forgetting. The exhibition is an act of solidarity with all those who are brutally silenced by criminal governments in their own countries. The public is given an idea of a hermetic world and is invited to become an active part of this public memory, which is now the only possible protection we can give these prisoners. It is an important and effective protection to which everyone can contribute, even if we can neither free the prisoners nor guarantee their survival.

vhs sprachrohr

special thanks to: Verena Boos

permanently accessible

STUTTGART

HMDK Stuttgart
Level 8
Urbanstrasse 25
70182 Stuttgart

The Belarusian opposition politician Mariya Kalesnikava studied flute at the HMDK Stuttgart before returning to Belarus in spring 2020. She lived in Stuttgart for 12 years and was deeply rooted in the Stuttgart new music scene as a musician and cultural manager. During the pandemic, she became a politician in Belarus and subsequently won the presidential election together with Veronika Tsepkala and Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. As a result, she would now actually be leading the country of Belarus together with her colleagues. The dictator Lukashenka prevented this by brutally persecuting the political opposition. Mariya Kalesnikava was first kidnapped and then arrested, and finally sentenced to 11 years in prison. She is currently serving this sentence under inhumane conditions that have brought her to the brink of death several times.

HMDK is dedicating two display cases designed by Nikola Lutz on level 8 to her on a permanent basis, drawing attention to Mariya Kalesnikava's incomprehensible situation and bringing her story to the attention of all those who no longer experienced her presence in Stuttgart and at the HMDK. With this installation, the HMDK declares its solidarity with Mariya Kalesnikava and calls for her freedom.

accessible within the opening hours of HDMK
Mo-Fr 7 am - 10 pm
Sa, Su 8 am - 10 pm
Please check for daily informations on the HMDK website!

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.