Maslenitsa - The Exhibition

Come along to Maslenitsa - The Exhibition to send off the cold season and bring warmth in! Celebrated across the former Eastern Bloc region, 'Maslenitsa' is a celebration of colour, nature, folklore and food.

See our exhibition leading up to Maslenitsa Festival for photographs, paintings and installations by artists from Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Russia, and beyond.

Folktale sharing sessions and workshops will take place throughout the exhibition, and details of these will be announced soon.

Free exhibition. Open daily 12-6pm at the Waiting Room, Battersea Arts Centre. Booking is recommended, but not required, feel free to just turn up.

As part of the exhibition: 

• Workshop / Durational Ritual with Bold Mellon, creating poetry and piecing together histories out of scattered paper beads - 10 March 6 - 8pm
• Private view with performances - 11 March 5 - 8pm

Supported by a Welcome to Wandsworth Project Grant.

From March 9th to the 15th, Battersea Arts Centre and Izba Arts present an exhibition of works from across the former Eastern Bloc focused around belonging, myth and renewal. Weaving together stories old and new through a series of films, performances, paintings and interactive installations, the show brings together artists reclaiming and reimagining Eastness and its culture as a source of connection with ourselves, nature and one another.

Featuring works by 30 artists, this show co-curated by Margarita Makhanova and Ksenia Kazintseva galvanises the energy of this community to unpack how experiences of migration and assimilation speak universally and how notions of belonging and visual language from this region have impacted British culture. It overlaps with the Spring Equinox and celebrates Maslenitsa - an Eastern European traditional event that sends away the pagan goddess Marena / Mara, who symbolises cold and death, by burning her figuring made out of hay, and welcomes in spring. This celebration later became aligned with many Orthodox traditions even non-religious communities partake in around this time including an alternative to Shrove Tuesday, using up animal products in pancakes before Lent. This entire time period is focused on reflection and renewal.

Whether you're able to join us in person, or want to know about the exhibition remotely, we've chosen to create a walk-through of the works and artist stories involved that you can refer back to here.