ABOUT
„Rise up, my love “, 3:23 min, 2022
The project ‘Rise up, My Love' is inspired by personal memories from the 1990s. During that time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, a reassessment of society in general and of ideological values came about. In this time of fundamental changes taking place within my country, I went through a personal transition myself, reconsidering my set of values and way of thinking. After going through a crisis (on the global and personal scale) and having survived such a crucial point, I have developed an interest in analysing critical moments and border situations. In this new project with the working title Rise Up, My Love!, I reflect on the presentment of a crisis situation in general, and on the current political crisis in Belarus in particular by performing a song in Belarusian. The title and the text I took from the Song of Songs, Solomon, Chapter 2, 12-14. Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away ( come out)!’ In this artwork, I want to approach crisis situations not just from a negative point of view, like a moment of collapse - but also look at them as moments of honesty, when the real condition of a society or individual comes to the surface. I would like to use the theme of crisis not as an illustration of the current world’s condition only or as a horror scenario. Instead, I see the moment of crisis as an opening for new opportunities and possibilities to rethink our cultural patterns and value system.
Lena Davidovich is a visual artist born in Belarus and currently based in Amsterdam. She studied painting at the Belarusian Art Academy and later at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. A key focus of her practice is the power of statements and how they shape our perceptions and realities. She explores the potential of art to influence public discourse and provoke reflection on the social and political dynamics of the world around us. Davidovich works frequently take the form of interventions in public or gallery spaces, engaging directly with the viewer’s environment and creating a dialogue between the artwork and its context. Her work has been exhibited in the Netherlands and internationally, including at De Balie (Amsterdam, NL ), Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Warsaw), CAC (Vilnius), and Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv) among others.