My name is Sasha, and I’m a political exile from Belarus. In my homeland, a repressive dictatorship prevails, suppressing freedom of expression. The government-controlled media conceals information regarding the increasing count of political detainees, the alarming rate of disappearances, and the ineffectiveness of laws and the constitution in safeguarding the rights of individuals.

“State of Denial” explores human functioning in a digital reality full of fake news, deep fakes and media manipulation or propaganda, which is a common experience in our lives. The project consists of two parts: the first one is a series of staged photographs based on absurd and frightening stories of arrests of people accused of taking part in peaceful protests in Belarus. In a country ruled by a dictatorship, people are put in jail for speaking Belarusian language, wearing white-red-white clothes, praying, carrying flowers, etc. The second part consists of images generated by artificial intelligence based on propaganda news headlines published on the day of the arrests or trials of civilians. In moments of crisis propaganda produces a lot of visual and news garbage. It distracts our attention from important traumatic events.

I aim to demonstrate how the agenda seeks to shift our focus away from crucial issues. Additionally, I want to explore our tendency to evade significant problems and instead occupy our minds with trivial entertainment content. I found it unbearable to watch the terrible news from Belarus, so I started filling this space with entertainment. Nevertheless, the sense of guilt grew day by day.