On Saturday, September 19, a participatory performance titled “A Percussion Piece” will take place at the NDSM wharf. Around 1,200 people will perform together in support of those who remain behind bars in Belarus for political reasons. The event is organized by antiwarcoalition.art.
The project’s creator, media artist and curator Maxim Tyminko, invites participants to wear cardboard masks featuring the faces of real Belarusian political prisoners and use simple household objects — pots, buckets, cans or lids — as improvised percussion instruments to create a collective soundscape.
“No musical experience is required. For 20 minutes, your sound becomes another person’s voice, and your presence becomes part of an artwork that can exist only once and only if we create it together,” the organizers say.
Creator Maxim Tyminko explains that the idea for the performance came from the impossibility of remaining silent. And if you do not remain silent, you need to speak loudly. “Otherwise, what is the point? Why say something soft and politically correct when the reality demands a much stronger voice?,” the artist says in an interview with Tatiana Kochubinska.
“The Percussion Piece” is not only about protest, the artist explains. — “It is not just about making something loud so that everyone hears it—it is also about making something audible for yourself. It is a way of expressing something that cannot be put into words, something emotional.
That is why the slogan Make Noise is so powerful. You are not making music. You are making noise—loud noise, maybe soft noise as well. But it is noise as a form of self-expression. This expression is not simply a direct act of protest: it is not about immediately producing signatures, petitions, or a concrete outcome.
It is about experience. And this is what makes it a work of art: people enter an emotional connection with real people who are imprisoned right now, and they express this connection through rhythm, sound, and noise. When you place a cardboard box over your head, you still have small openings through which you can see the world around you, but you remain inside the box. You are working with yourself while being part of a large crowd. I think this tension—between isolation and collective experience—is a very important part of the piece.”
Using homemade instruments, cans and percussion instruments is one of the simplest ways to participate. People can do it without any knowledge, preparation or additional practice. Anyone can make noise, create rhythms and produce sounds. And if you listen to your neighbor, you can start repeating, responding, playing together and so on. Maxim Tyminko hopes that this percussion piece will work precisely this way.
People will have a real experience that will belong to this particular moment.
In Maxim Tyminko’s art, he is most interested in algorithms and social choreography — that is, things that are not entirely controlled by the artist himself.
The artist can create a set of rules, after which the system begins to grow, develop and live its own life. This idea was important to Maxim Tyminko even before he learned programming and began creating art based on programming. At the time, he was working in video art, where he constantly used looping. In other words, he sought to ensure that his work had no clear beginning or end and would continue to develop.
For Maxim Tyminko, the connection between very simple programming rules and people’s lived experiences is important. He also notes that technology is closely linked to the 2020 protests, which were made possible in part by technology. For example, the “Voice” civic platform and other initiatives created a parallel system for verifying election results. People saw the real figures.
Technology also helped organize the protests themselves: Telegram channels and networks of contacts. At the same time, repression in Belarus is also based on technology. The same tools are used for control. Even this percussion piece became possible only thanks to technology, the network and the ability to connect with people.
By the way, registration to participate in the performance is still open.