Dina Zhuk (Belarus): Got a mark on a hand

Gallery offline – updating soon

“I don’t know, nothing happened and something happened at the same time. When did it all start? How? Failed to mention. (laughing) Yes, it could be like that from the very beginning. Like that – what do I mean? I don’t know. Do we really live bad? Like all the rest. Do I love? I think, yes. Yes, for a long time. We have been living together more than a year. Am I happy? (thinking) I was happy when it all started then we moved, began to live together, but for the last several months something unnatural began to happen. No, we don’t discuss that. Everything is so tangled, I can’t clear up a mess. One day I want to be with him, the next day I don’t. Yes, something is going on with him either. Painful? I got used, you know. Yesterday he took me so strong by the hand and began to kiss.

I didn’t resist, but, you know, somewhere inside I felt myself comfortless, I wanted to tell him that I don’t want it. He? Aggressively? Here, got a mark on a hand. Why are we together? (silence)”.

I have been documenting the lives of young couples in Belarus. I was interested in people relationship of my age. First I just started to talk with them about their life and attitude to all spheres of their living. I began to come to their places, stayed for a night, had long talks, walked around, followed them. I spent a lot of time watching them in their habitual daily routine. As couples got used to me documenting, that became natural for all of us. That was my first experience going deep into my artistic studies. At first I found really happy couples living together but when I got deeper I realised that inside of some of them is a profound split, but the problem is not lying on the top, it is hidden somewhere where even couples themselves can not always find the roots. And they are struggling and trying to understand if they are happy in their relationship, if it is really what they were looking for. Is it still tender relationship or sometimes it has some forms of covert aggression or killing indifference?

• Dina Zhuk’s Web Site