Political Soundwalks: listening to the political protests in Minsk, Belarus
In this audio-paper you’ll hear how the Belarusian protesters and the state were fighting for the space with voices, noises and music. The field recordings made at demonstrations, DIY concerts, poetry readings, theater performances and other sites of sonic and cultural resistance to the dictatorship are the starting points for a discussion on the multifaceted role of sound in claiming the urban and political space in Belarus.
I made this audio piece for ‘Walking as a Question’ conference (04-17.07.2021 - Prespa, Greece).The conference’s topic of ‘(sound)walking’ allowed me not to try telling about everything, but to focus on a relatively narrow aspect of the whole story - how walking in the streets at ?the wrong time / wrong place’ and the very act of coming out of your house is a political act that can have dramatic consequences in today’s Belarus.
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Trigger warning: This audio contains loud sounds of flashbang grenades explosions, people shouting and loud music. Please do not listen to this work, if you’re sensitive to such sounds or have traumatic experiences associated with them.