INTRODUCTION by Viktor Petrov, Festival Curator

The third international festival of performance Navinki 2001 was a representative forum of contemporary art. It is currently the only art festival in Belarus, so there are no doubts as to its relevance. This is particularly true for Belarus's closed, conservative, ideologised and aggressive society which lies on the periphery of civilisation. In Belarus, art continues to be regarded as an outmoded form of state ideology. Crafts and traditional art are portrayed as some kind of innovation, and the myth of Belarusian "patriotism" is propagated as if it were some special, uniquely original development model. Performance is a form of creative freedom, especially when presented by Western masters of contemporary art, or the fresh young generation of Belarusian artists. It displays fragments of our new and rapidly-changing world. At the same time, by getting to grips with this open art form, people begin to move towards an open society. They begin to understand that art is a form of interpersonal communication, not just an ideologised sect for museum operatives.

Performance opens up its opportunities to us through its vision of art, and convinces us that art is in fact a living process.