Apéro-débat / Theatre & democracy
Join Belarus Free Theatre’s co-founding Artistic Directors, Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin in a conversation with Petz Bartz about the importance of creating art in times of political unrest.
Belarus Free Theatre, known for developing an artistic form of resistance, will talk about the need for theatre to reflect on democracy and remind us that in totalitarian regimes, artists are there to fight censorship and challenge the authorities through their work. The two co-founders being themselves political refugees exiled from their countries, will not only discuss the situation in Belarus but the participation of theatre in the democratic ideals and the exercise of democracy itself. In a pivotal moment of Europe’s social context, and with war suddenly at our doorsteps, how can theatre reassert its political function and, more broadly, how can the performing arts echo current events?
