Uladzimir Hramovich, Holding a hedgehog with bare hands, 2019

Screenprint, paper, diptych 48 x 30 cm (each)

"Holding a hedgehog with bare hands". The project was born out of closer contact with the Belarusian post-war satirical magazine "Hedgehog" ("Вожык")

During World War II it was called - "Defeat the Fascist Beast". One of the illustrations from that period shows a Soviet soldier extending a pen toward a hedgehog, clearly indicating that the pen is a weapon. I was fascinated by these transformations: soldier into hedgehog, human into animal, machine gun into pencil, and to go further, pencil into needle. The Russian analogy for saying "to hold something with a firm hand/on a short leash" into English translates as - "to hold someone with hedgehog gloves." Of course, it means that the gloves are so thick that you can catch a hedgehog in them and not get hurt, but as a child I always thought it meant such pointy spiked gloves. It seems that deprivation of needles and pinning can be a great tool for giving yourself a handle on your own inability to grasp the bigger picture: use them to attach as many clues, pieces, fragments as you can carry. Holding a hedgehog in your bare hands is like trying to hold a story: it's not easy to catch, it can hurt, but it's fascinating and worth trying." Uladzimir Hramovich

BIOGRAM: Uladzimir Hramovich (1989) - artist, lives and works in Minsk and Gdansk.
He graduated from the Achremchik Gymnasium-College of Fine Arts in Minsk (2009)
and the graphic design department of the Belarusian State Academy of Arts in Minsk (2015)
Member of the Problem Collective since 2016.
Works with installations, graphics and video. Explores themes of history and memory.

Solo exhibitions:

2021. "Let's drink to those who failed!", Brno Art House, Brno, Czech Republic
2019. "Holding a hedgehog with bare hands," Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria
2018. "When rocks are uphill, cannonballs get out of the way," Gallery of Contemporary Art "Ў," Minsk, Belarus
2017. "Material Resistance," Belly of the Vision Digestion Center, Wroclaw, Poland.

Selected exhibitions:

2021. "
2021. "DISCOVERY," Domie, Poznan, Poland.
2021. "Attentive Impact*," ABF. Stockholm, Sweden
2021. "SPRACTICING REVOLUTION: Short Film Program," Sinima Transtopia, Berlin, Germany
2021. "CROP," WAF Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2021. "Cries of the Silenced. The gray space in the middle," Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands
2021. "ADAPTATIONS series," Gorzow Wlkp, Poland.
2021. "Poetic Dissident," IoDeposito B#S Gallery, Treviso, Italy.
2021 "Every Day. Art. Solidarity. Resistance," Mysteckiy Arsenal, Kiev, Ukraine
2021 "Ommach to Zahar Kudin". Zala 2, Minsk, Belarus
2020 "Echoes. Voices from Belarus," ECLAT Festival, Stuttgart, Germany.
2020. "Faceless," KH space, Brest, Belarus
2020. "Das MIńsk," Contemporary Art Gallery "Ў," Minsk, Belarus.
2020. "B.A.R. (Belarus. Art. Revolution)," Berlin, Germany.
2020. "Meet your neighbor," Tbilisi, Georgia
2019. "Vulica Brazil" urban festival, Minsk, Belarus
2019. "Beyond, subordination, holidays and hedgehogs", Apart Raum, Berlin, Germany.
2018. "WORK HARD! PLAY HARD!", Minsk, Belarus
2018. "WITHOUT EXCEPTION! In Process," Gallery of Contemporary Art "Ў," Minsk, Belarus.
2017. 5th Odessa Biennial of Contemporary Art, Odessa, Ukraine
2016 "Conversations on Politics. Critical art of Belarus X," DK DIY, Moscow, Russia
2016. "Art-Vilnius '16 Contemporary Art Fair," LITEXPO, Vilnius, Lithuania
2015. "5th Land Art Festival Podlaski Przelom Bugu," Poland
2015. "Diploma," Gallery of Contemporary Art "Ў," Minsk, Belarus
2014. "Replika," Gallery of Contemporary Art "Ў," Minsk, Belarus
2013. "Soram," Gallery "Ceh," Minsk, Belarus
2013. "Structuring: fragments", Contemporary Art Gallery "Ў", Minsk, Belarus.

Curatorial project:

2019 "Hold the white-black line," Gennady Grak. Gallery of Contemporary Art "Ў," Minsk, Belarus

Residencies:

2021. "Q21," Vienna, Austria
2021. "WAF Gallery," Vienna, Austria
2021. "Brno artists in residence," Brno, Czech Republic
2021. "Arsenal Gallery," Bialystok, Poland
2019. "Rotor," Vienna, Austria
2018. "Slavs and Tatars," Berlin, Germany