Seit über 27 Jahren regiert Alexan­der Lukaschenko in Belarus. Es ist eine Gen­er­a­tion herangewach­sen, die ihre Heimat nicht ohne den autoritären Präsi­den­ten ken­nt. Was bedeutet es, unter diesen Umstän­den aufzuwach­sen? Durch die andauern­den Repres­sio­nen gibt es immer weniger Men­schen, die rebel­lieren und Wider­stand leis­ten. Pas­siv, desil­lu­sion­iert und rat­los müssen sie sich mit den Regeln des Regimes arrangieren.

Julia Autz has cap­tured this sit­u­a­tion pho­to­graph­i­cal­ly in her por­traits: “In my work I show young peo­ple striv­ing for indi­vid­u­al­i­ty, which is not desired in Belarus. Peo­ple who are dis­crim­i­nat­ed against because of their polit­i­cal stance, sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion or sim­ply because of a dif­fer­ent way of think­ing and living.”

Self-real­iza­tion, as these pic­tures show, can only take place in pri­vate, if at all. With­drawn into their own four walls, peo­ple try to con­serve the free­dom with­in. The pic­tures were tak­en in the time before the protests and show hope wait­ing for change.

Julia Autz.Born in 1988. Lives in Berlin. After her diplo­ma in com­mu­ni­ca­tion design at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences Darm­stadt, she stud­ied pho­tog­ra­phy in the Mas­ter of Arts at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences Biele­feld. For “While I Was Wait­ing” she received the pres­ti­gious Vonovia Award

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