On October 7, the Lithuanian Art Museum of Arts hosted the media preview and presentation of a documentary and educational television project “Belarus-Born Artists of the School of Paris”. It was dedicated to the beginning of broadcasting on the Lithuanian television of the TV series of the same name consisting of 7 films.
Presentation is part of “Art-Belarus”, project of Belgazprombank OJSC, and a follow-up of the exhibition “Belarus-Born Artists of the School of Paris. From the corporate collection of Belgazprombank OJSC, museum and private collections”, opened in Vilnius.
Each of the series of this documentary and educational project discloses the life and creative work of one of the Paris School artists: Chaim Soutine, Marc Chagall, Leon Bakst, Nadia Khodassievitch Léger, Michel Kikoïne, Ossip Lubitch and Faibich-Schraga Zarfin. Each 26-minute film is based on a documentary biography of the character and contains interviews with relatives, art critics, collectors and experts.
When working on the project the creative team of Oleg Lukashevich and Aleksandr Alekseyev made a research in a number of archives in Belarus, Russia and France. Authors of the film cooperated with the artists’ relatives and eye-witnesses of those events. Oleg Lukashevich and Aleksandr Alekseyev met Marc Chagall’s son – David McNeill, Ossip Lubitch’s daughter – Dina Lyubich, which enabled them not only to learn new information but also to specify some facts of the artists’ biographies. Most of the documents appearing in the film will be first shown to the wide audience.
Our project is a documentary and educational cycle aimed at a wide audience, said Oleg Lukashevich when presenting the film. We hope that upon seeing it viewers will discover an absolutely new layer of the Belarusian culture.
Also, this documentary cycle extensively demonstrates the corporate collection of Belgazprombank OJSC comprising over 60 works of art. The best works of this collection (“Eva” and “Big Lawns in Chartres near Viaduct” by Chaim Soutine, “The Green Landscape” and “The Clock on the Flaring Sky” by Marc Chagall) are on show at the exhibition “Belarus-Born Artists of the School of Paris”, which was opened on September 11 at Vilnius Art Gallery of the Lithuanian Art Museum.
First impression from the film is that the talent of its authors matches the scale of the topic they have chosen, and this is indeed great, noted Viktor Babariko, the Chairman of the Board of Belgazprombank OJSC and the mastermind of the project. This feature cycle, as well as all other projects sponsored by the bank, is distinguished by purposefulness towards the future. We would really like that following the example of Paris School artists the Belarusian art would become more vivid than it is now.
The project will definitely be continued since the authors have gathered enough material to make a few more series of the film or a voluminous book.
Singer Madonna gave her consent to the usage of her music in the film, which is confirmed by the signed copyright agreement. Also, authors of the film obtained an approval from Marc Chagall Committee and complied with all the copyrights of successors of the Belarusian artists of Paris School, relevant contracts were concluded with each of the copyright holders.
Next year we are expecting to release Oleg Lukashevich’s series “Belarus-Born Artists of the School of Paris” on DVDs
Oleg Lukashevich was born in 1972. In 1995 he graduated from the Belarusian State University majoring in journalism. In 1996 he completed an internship at the International Center “CIRNEA” in Paris in the specialty of “television director and camera operator”. Since 2001, Lukashevich has been presiding over the artistic group of the First Channel of the Belarusian TV, and has created a number of TV projects (“New Collection”, “Our Heritage”, “Cut!”, “The Epoch”). Since 2003, together with Aleksandr Alekseyev, he has been implementing the artistic project “Heritage of Belarus”, within which exhibitions are held, albums released, TV films and programs produced. In January 2005, he was awarded the prize of the President of the Republic of Belarus “For spiritual renovation”.
Aleksandr Alekseyev was born in 1978. In 2000 he graduated from the Belarus State Economic University majoring in management. Ph.D. in Economics. He has published a number of works on economics and won many republican and international competitions and conferences. Since 2001, Alekseyev has been working at the Belarusian television, he is the author and director of the “Cut!” program, editor of such TV projects as “Our Heritage”, “The Epoch”. In January 2005, he was awarded the prize of the President of the Republic of Belarus “For spiritual renovation”. Starting from 2012, Alekseyev has been working in the sphere of Belarusian documentary films industry. In 2014, he graduated from the Belarusian State Academy of Arts with the specialty of “director”.
