State of Denial

“State of denial” project explores human functioning in a digital reality full of fake news, deep fakes and media manipulation or propaganda, which is a common experience in our lives.

My name is Sasha. I’m a political exile from Belarus — an isolated country, where a repressive dictatorship rules and freedom of speech has been destroyed. State-controlled media conceal the real situation: in 2020, after the presidential elections, mass protests erupted, the number of political prisoners rose from 1 to more than 2,000. Disappearances became more frequent, the laws and Constitution ceased to protect citizens. In Belarus, you can be imprisoned for speaking Belarusian, for praying or wearing white-red-white — the colours of our historical flag, now labeled extremist.

My project State of Denial explores what it means to exist inside a distorted reality. We live in a world of fakes and propaganda — forces that shape not only the content of information, but also how we perceive it.

The project consists of two parts. The first is a series of staged photographs based on real and frightening arrest cases in Belarus. These stories seem absurd, but they happen every day.

The second part features images generated by artificial intelligence, based on headlines from state media published on the exact days of those arrests. Instead of facts, there’s a flood of irrelevant, bizarre, distracting news. For each case, I selected 12 headlines published on the day of the arrest—to show how, in moments of crisis, propaganda generates visual and informational noise.

Propaganda is not just a Belarusian problem. It exists everywhere. In some places, it is aggressive and obvious; in others, it is subtle — embedded in interfaces, entertainment, and algorithms. But the goal is always the same: to rewrite reality, erase the truth, and conceal state crimes.

This project addresses global questions of freedom, information manipulation, and human rights — questions relevant to everyone facing repression and distorted realities.