Jura Shust: Żywica*Solar Plexus

“Żywica* Solar plexus” is the first solo exhibition of Jura Shust in Poland. The Belarusian artist, living in Berlin, constantly returns in his work to native region of the Polish-Belarusian-Lithuanian borderland. This is an area in which ancient forms of folk knowledge have survived, and at the same time one of the most exceptional natural landscapes of Europe — primeval forest, peatlands, transitional forests bordering on the taiga.

Drawing on research in the field of ethnobotany, Shust examines traces of animism present in the cultures of Eastern Europe — ancient beliefs, rituals and practices describing relations between human beings and the more-than-human world, which have survived in folklore and cultural texts. In his work — encompassing both installations made from organic and industrial materials, and films unfolding to the rhythm of the winter and summer solstice — references recur to the ancient symbolism of the forest and sacred trees, rites of passage and funeral ceremonies. Meanwhile, collaboration with a group of young refugees in the film and performance, and references to the technological world, inscribe the artist’s practice at the centre of the most important contemporary political and social debates.

Rooted in a specific geopolitical context, Shust’s practice addresses universal questions: the erosion of relationships with the more-than-human world, the transformation of spirituality, and the need to build communities that transcend species boundaries in the face of crises driven by extractive capitalism, militarization, and the destruction of ecosystems. At the same time, the artist asks how we might navigate a world in which artificial intelligence increasingly assumes functions once associated with religion and mythology—those of narrating the world and giving meaning to human existence. It emerges as a planetary system of governance, a collective digital consciousness, and the fulfillment of long-standing desires for interspecies communication. What form might our afterlife take in the digital clouds?