Natalya Kolyada: “Finally Europe has started to wonder what is going on in Belarusian culture”

Belarus Free Theatre represented our country at the international conference “New paradigms New Paradigms, New Models – Culture in the EU External Relations” held in Ljubljana under the auspices of Slovenian government. Hans-Gerd Pöttering, president of the European Parliament, took part in the conference.

At the conference Belarus was represented by the directors of Free Theatre Nikolay Khalezin, Natalya Kolyada and Vladimir Scherban and a sociologist Nelly Bekus-Goncharova.

“For the first time Belarusian cultural politics is analyzed in the context of the European Union. Moreover, a special panel discussion with participation of EU politicians dedicated to Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine took place at the conference. At the conference a question was raised how Europe could help Belarusian culture, and at what principles cooperation should take place. Firstly, there should be support of Belarusian modern actual cultural projects by the EU. It includes musicians, artists, theatrical workers and writers. Expert examination of these projects should be very professional. An important detail is solving visa problems for facilitating communications, as it is very difficult to receive a Schengen visa for Belarusians today,” Natalya Kolyada told to the Charter’97 press-center.

“At the conference in Ljubljana a sociologist Nelly Bekus-Goncharova revealed information which shocked all participants. It turns out that out of all money allocated to the Belarusian culture by the EU, only 30% are received by cultural workers, while 70% are received by the regime. We are glad that on the 14th year of the current regime’s existence Europe has finally started to wonder what is going on the Belarusian culture. We believe that it is an achievement of the Belarusian counter-culture in general, which represents Belarus in the world today,” Natalya Kolyada said.