Rethinking/Embracing the Borderland State

At the next meeting of the working group Semi-Peripheral Theory | Tendencies of Contemporary Theory Production in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, our guest will be Olga Bubich.

Together, we will discuss the long-term debate surrounding Belarus as a state formed by “the identity of border(s)” (Ihar Babkou, 2020), whose potential existence resists solid forms and aspires itself towards “a liquid form” (Ihnat Abdziralovič, 1921). As a starting point for her reflection, Bubich will present Along the Edge (2012–2016), a video work by the Belarusian photographer and media artist Siarhei Hudzilin. This multimedia work provides a cultural and linguistic approach to semi-periphery theory, exploring issues of national self-identification. Hudzilin’s film addresses a wide range of social issues in contemporary Belarus and speaks about the country as “the state of border/bordeline state as the state of the absence of borders.” Bubich will bring this perspective into conversation with the actions of former political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich, who refused to be “pardoned” under the condition of forced deportation in September 2025 and “disappeared in the woods on the Belarusian side of the border.”

Olga Bubich (*1980) is an essayist, visual artist, lecturer, and memory researcher. She is the author of numerous journalistic and essayistic texts on cultural, social, political, and memory-related topics. She is the author of one book and two photobooks, including The Art of (not) Forgetting (2021), which is dedicated to the elusive nature of memory. The work was exhibited in Georgia, Germany, the UK, and Sweden. Her most recent publications include the essays and articles The Language that Waited at the Doorstep (2025), Nostalgie als Waffe and Erfahrung der Freiheit: Die Kinder von Tschernobyl (2025 and 2026, trans. Steffen Vogel), Erinnerung in Bewegung (2026, trans. Anselm Bühling) and In Belarus finden die Toten keine Ruhe (2026, trans. Die Presse). Bubich left Belarus in the summer of 2021 and has been living in Berlin since December 2022 (as an ICORN fellow from 2022–2024).

Abb. oben: Ausstellung »Greenhouse Effect« von Siarhei Hudzilin, Minsk 2016. © Olga Bubich