Kiryl Masheka
Residence:
LITERARY RESIDENCIES IN WARSAW FOR WRITERS, PLAYWRITERS AND TRANSLATORS FROM BELARUS AND UKRAINE
He is an actor, performer, playwright, and civic activist working at the intersection of art, political experience, and research practice. His work was shaped by authoritarian pressure, forced emigration, and the fight for freedom of expression.
From 2012 to 2017, he worked at the Belarus Free Theatre in the “Fortinbras” laboratory, where he co-created politically engaged performances and taught directing classes. The company was awarded the prestigious Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent (Oslo Freedom Forum, 2018).
Since 2016, he has been co-creating the Pussy Riot project as an actor and playwright of the performance “Riot Days,” based on the memoirs of Maria Aliokhina. The performance combines theater, concert, protest action, and documentaryfootage and has been presented internationally, including atthe Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
In the 2024/2025 season, he participated in the play “Un-Packing,” directed by Katarzyna Kalwat. The play was writtenby Belarusian author Mikita Ilyinčyk, and the production was produced in collaboration with the Gustav Holoubek DramaticTheatre in Warsaw and the Wrocław Contemporary Theatre. The play explores themes of migration, memory, linguisticand cultural borders, and political isolation.
He has also collaborated with human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and People in Need, served as a juror for the international documentary film festival One World Film Festival, and led workshops on the art of resistance. He has participated in artistic residencies with organizations such as RAZAM.DE, Kalektar Platform, and DOMIE Space.
In 2021, he was arrested for political reasons and, after his release, was forced to leave Belarus. This experience has become the focal point of his artistic strategy, in which documentary, corporeality, voice and collective memory are transformed into artistic material and political gesture.
Photo: Mikalaj Kuprycz