“Bazhynki” reborn: Media Camp near Vilnius brings journalists together in an act of solidarity

Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists once again gath­ered near Vil­nius for the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp, reviv­ing a long-stand­ing tra­di­tion of infor­mal gath­er­ings orga­nized by mem­bers of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists. For a com­mu­ni­ty forced into exile, the gath­er­ing was an oppor­tu­ni­ty not only to step away from the dai­ly rou­tine, but also to show gen­uine sol­i­dar­i­ty with col­leagues who remain behind bars.

At the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ

“The main pur­pose of gath­er­ings like this is to strength­en our per­son­al rela­tion­ships and con­nec­tions among jour­nal­ists. We haven’t held a Bazhyn­ki gath­er­ing in years — the last ones were still in Belarus. And we’ll remem­ber our col­leagues behind bars, too,” BAJ Chair Andrei Bas­tunets said at the begin­ning of the event.

*Editor’s note: “Bazhyn­ki” is a play on Dazhyn­ki, a tra­di­tion­al Belaru­sian har­vest fes­ti­val. The name com­bines “BAJ,” the acronym for the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, with the idea of a jour­nal­ists’ get-togeth­er.

The cen­ter­piece of the Media Camp was a sol­i­dar­i­ty action in sup­port of impris­oned col­leagues. Jour­nal­ists cre­at­ed artis­tic col­lages and post­cards to send mes­sages of sup­port to them. The cre­ative work­shop was led by well-known Belaru­sian pho­tog­ra­ph­er Iry­na, who com­bines pho­tog­ra­phy and col­lage in her work.

BAJ chair Andrei Bas­tunets at the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ

Iry­na encour­aged the par­tic­i­pants to approach the project as a deep­er cre­ative exer­cise rather than just mak­ing con­ven­tion­al draw­ings.

“This will be an act of sol­i­dar­i­ty with our col­leagues who are behind bars. Let’s give them some­thing they’re miss­ing there. Let’s do it with the help of our inner child,” Iry­na said.

To make the post­cards tru­ly per­son­al, Iry­na pre­pared indi­vid­ual pro­files of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers based on sto­ries from their friends:

“I reached out to their col­leagues. They told me a lit­tle about what the per­son might be miss­ing, what used to be part of their life.”

The media pro­fes­sion­als split into teams and chose the peo­ple they want­ed to cre­ate post­cards for.

At the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

Iron­ic poster offer­ing “bad advice,” cre­at­ed by one of the teams at the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

Jour­nal­ist Hlafi­ra Zhuk at the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

The history of collage: From Picasso’s friendship therapy to Belarusian paper-cutting

Dur­ing the work­shop, the facil­i­ta­tor gave par­tic­i­pants a brief tour of art his­to­ry, explain­ing the con­nec­tions between col­lage, psy­chother­a­py, and sol­i­dar­i­ty. She cit­ed Pablo Picas­so and Georges Braque, pio­neers of the medi­um, as an exam­ple. Picasso’s col­lab­o­ra­tive work on col­lages with Braque became an expres­sion of friend­ship and sup­port for Braque while he was ill.

Human rights defend­er Aleh Matske­vich at the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

Anoth­er exam­ple was Hen­ri Matisse, who in his lat­er years was no longer able to walk but cre­at­ed a beau­ti­ful world of his own: “He cre­at­ed a gar­den out of paper cutouts.”

Iry­na also men­tioned Ger­man anti-fas­cist artist and polit­i­cal col­lage mas­ter John Heart­field, who cre­at­ed his cel­e­brat­ed col­lages dur­ing the Nazi regime.

Human rights defend­er Leanid Sudalen­ka and BAJ Deputy Chair Aleh Aheyeu at the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

At the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

For Belaru­sians, Iry­na not­ed, col­lage is also root­ed in a famil­iar artis­tic tra­di­tion:

“Look at vytsi­nan­ki! We have these mul­ti­col­ored, mul­ti­lay­ered paper cutouts. Basi­cal­ly, it’s the same thing as col­lage.”

Personal messages

Par­tic­i­pants cre­at­ed a series of unique col­lages filled with per­son­al mean­ing.

For exam­ple, the team work­ing on a post­card for Pavel Dabravol­s­ki sought to “cap­ture his per­son­al­i­ty, char­ac­ter, and moments from his life sto­ry.”

Film crit­ic Taras Tar­nal­it­s­ki at the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

The col­lage for Pali­na Pitke­vich cen­tered on her two major pas­sions in life: the­ater and car­ing for stray ani­mals. The image was divid­ed into a light and a dark side:

“The light side is the yel­low sun, which casts its light, includ­ing on the Siamese cat, which is also look­ing down at the the­ater stage. And there’s a black pas­sage­way — that’s the dark side…”

At the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

At the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

At the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

“Not losing hope for the future”

Each col­lage is more than just a piece of paper — it rep­re­sents hope for the swift release of their col­leagues. The cre­ators of the work for Pavel Dabravol­s­ki open­ly expressed that hope:

“I hope this work might reach Pavel when he gets out.”

“Brighter times will come, when Pali­na can be released and return to doing what she loves — work­ing in jour­nal­ism and con­tin­u­ing… And we hope for that, too.”

At the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

Polit­i­cal ana­lyst Vadz­im Mazhei­ka at the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

Vital Babin at the Points of Con­nec­tion Media Camp. Lithua­nia, August 2026. Pho­to: BAJ.

The gath­er­ing near Vil­nius showed that the Belaru­sian media com­mu­ni­ty remains unit­ed. Through cre­ativ­i­ty, pre­serv­ing tra­di­tions, and sup­port­ing one anoth­er, jour­nal­ists con­tin­ue to stand up for their col­leagues and believe in a bet­ter future.