Soft sculpture, 2026
The exhibition “Half-Life: 40 Years After Charnobyl — The Belarusian Fallout”
UQ-BAR-A-BA, Berlin 2026
This “piercing”of reality became not only the catastrophe itself but also what followed. Through these „holes,” numerous organizations emerged, such as the Belarusian Committee “Children of Charnobyl” (founded in 1986) and “Help for Children of Charnobyl.” These focused on international cooperation, organizing trips abroad for children for treatment and recovery. For many, this became their first experience outside the post-Soviet space — an opportunity to encounter different social models, learn languages, and shape new life trajectories. One such child was artist Dasha Sazanovich, who from ages 6 to 16 spent summers in northern Italy with a host family.
These programs influenced an entire generation, including those who later became involved in civic and humanitarian ini tiatives in Belarus. For example, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a key political figure in contemporary Belarus who won the 2020 election, participated in such programs as a child and lived with a host family in Ireland, where she learned English — a skill that later became crucial. A similar experience informs Dasha Sazanovich’s work “Plush Atoms“. Using archival footage from 1996 showing children arriving in Italy ten years after the disaster, she reflects on how the catastrophe shaped childhood, mobility, and worldviews.
These programs influenced an entire generation, including those who later became involved in civic and humanitarian ini tiatives in Belarus. For example, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a key political figure in contemporary Belarus who won the 2020 election, participated in such programs as a child and lived with a host family in Ireland, where she learned English — a skill that later became crucial. A similar experience informs Dasha Sazanovich’s work “Plush Atoms“. Using archival footage from 1996 showing children arriving in Italy ten years after the disaster, she reflects on how the catastrophe shaped childhood, mobility, and worldviews.
Alongside the video, she creates a large, deliberately kitschy plush sculpture resembling an enlarged atom — referencing toys produced in the Belarusian city of Zhlobin and sold as part of informal survival economies.
Through this juxtaposition, the catastrophe appears not as a singular past event but as a background structure shaping everyday life — subtle yet persistent. The soft, bright, slightly grotesque sculptures translate the scientific image of the atom into a tactile, domestic register, reflecting how trauma becomes embedded in the material and emotional fabric of childhood.
From the curatorial text by Uladzimir Hramovich, 2026
Through this juxtaposition, the catastrophe appears not as a singular past event but as a background structure shaping everyday life — subtle yet persistent. The soft, bright, slightly grotesque sculptures translate the scientific image of the atom into a tactile, domestic register, reflecting how trauma becomes embedded in the material and emotional fabric of childhood.
From the curatorial text by Uladzimir Hramovich, 2026
Video footage, archive of the Artist, 1996