At the beginning of the 20th century, Belarus (formerly the USSR) was the cradle of Russian avant-garde. The artistic climate of the time produced famous artists such as Chagall, Malevitch, Zadkine and Soutine. Today, the country led by President Lukashenko is Europe's last dictatorship. The social realism that is still present coexists strangely with a new artistic avant-garde, both closely linked to the Belarusian national character.

Igor Tishin, one of the most important representatives of subversive Belarusian painting, is a perfect illustration of this particularity. His work is defined by a martyrology that has its origins in the successive tragedies that have filled his country's collective memory, such as the massacres of the Great Patriotic War, the partisans of the irregular army, Stalinist repression and the repression of today. Using metaphors, the artist explores the collective consciousness where the spirit of Chagall and folklore continue to colour life, while dark Soviet dogmas continue to weigh heavily. Igor now lives in Belgium and shows a growing interest in socio-philosophical and universal issues.

His approach as a painter remains shifted, constantly balancing between reality and the imaginary, between identity and otherness. Igor Tishin likes to recklessly break his own stylistic forms. His disruptive brushstrokes result in an insolent, absurd work driven by derision, where the trick is to be able to read between the lines.