Igor Shugaleev: 375 0908 2334. The body you are calling is currently not available

yard of the High School No. 3 in Białystok, 2/1 Pałacowa Street
May 28, 21:00
free admission

“375 0908 2334. The body you are calling is currently not available”
– the idea of performance arose from the state of protesting against violence, resisting prolonged stress, fear and overcoming feelings of guilt in which Belarusians live nowadays consciously or not. It’s a kind of invitation to conceive being detained in Belarus, to go physically through the lawlessness, illegality and outrage which tens of thousands of civilians went through – violence that continues to this day.

The performer builds a fairly simple way of communicating with the audience: identifying himself with the detainee, he simulates the situation of bodily experience at a certain stage of torture, and thus brings a faceless person out of the information field into a physical one, transforms a conditional victim from news into a living person.

“I was looking for a way to express the horror of the events that befell us – how to talk about numbness, fear and at the same time contempt for violence, about the feeling of guilt for the mass emigration of Belarusians and my own – being just an actor how can I support the protest?” – says Igor. – “And this performance was the answer: it is important to stay in context, active, conscious, not indifferent, not disparait.”

375 0908 2334:
375 – telephone code of the Republic of Belarus
0908 is the date of the presidential elections, which were cynically rigged by the authorities. The spite and discontentment with the election results resulted in a revolutionary protest movement, which continues to this day.
2334 is the number of the Administrative Code article “Violation of the procedure for organizing or holding mass events”, according to which more than 40 thousand Belarusians have been convicted since August 2020.
Idea, performer: Igor Shugaleev
Curator, artist: Sergey Shabohin
Video artist: Aleksandra Kononchenko
Producer: Marina Dashuk

BOK Białostocki Ośrodek Kultury