We'll Hold A Wedding On Your Graves. Beyond VEHA Photographic Archive

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The title of the exhibition We’ll Hold a Wedding on Your Graves is taken from a fragment of the poem To Those Who Had Gone by Valery Marakou (1909-1937). Marakou was a Belarusian poet executed by the Soviets in 1937, along with 22 other Belarusian intellectuals and social activists. The idea of having a wedding on the ancestor’s graves is full of hope for the continuity of Belarusian life, history and culture, as well as belief in the possibility of sharing happiness with relatives who have passed away (rituals dedicated to worshiping the spirits of ancestors and communion of the living with the dead are present in Belarusian folklore until nowadays). The aim of the exhibition, among others, is to make Belarusian history understandable and attractive for outsiders by highlighting universal issues and problems common to different localities and cultures.

The project was partially carried out as part of a scholarship from the mayor of Lublin.