Old Brest-Nesvizh is open to visitors in the Greater Exhibition Hall of Radziwill Palace

From December 14, 2021 to March 14, 2022, the temporary exhibition of works by Anastasia Fetisova, a member of the Belarusian Union of Artists, Old Brest-Nesvizh is open to visitors in the Greater Exhibition Hall of Radziwill Palace. The exhibition was organized in cooperation with the cultural institution Brest Regional Museum of Local Studies.

The name of the temporary exhibition reflects the main theme of the artist's works - the history and culture of two Belarusian cities. The author focuses on the role of Brest and Nesvizh as cultural centres in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Anastasia Fetisova was born to the family of Ivan Yakovlevich Fetisov, a famous Brest artist. After graduating from high school, she received a degree in choral conducting at Minsk College of Music. In 1982, she graduated from Belarusian State Theater and Art Institute (now Belarusian State Academy of Arts). Until 1990, she designed interiors of public buildings and performed monumental and decorative works.

Since 1987, she has been actively participating in international exhibitions and plein-air events (Warsaw, Moscow, Germany, etc.), and also presented personal exhibitions in Belarus and abroad.

Currently, she is engaged in painting with enamel on metal, as well as easel painting in the historical genre.

Her works are in the collections of The Brest Museum of Local Studies, The Museum of the Brest Fortress Defense, the Grodna State Museum of History and Archaeology, in the historical museums of Kobrin and Pinsk, as well as in private collections in Germany, Holland, Croatia, USA, and Poland.

“The people is a society that remembers and knows its history. Born in Brest, I was interested in history, because I loved to walk the streets looking at houses, almost all of my youth passed on the territory of the famous Brest Fortress. And then one day, I experienced a feeling, I learned and realised that city's history was sleeping under its ruins. And I wanted to see and recreate its visual appearance. I began to cooperate with museums, historians, and, gradually, archival documents started revealing temples, houses, streets, portraits of historical figures whose lives were connected with Brest. And then, I became interested in history, and looked closely at other cities. I found Nesvizh, and namely Nesvizh Castle, one of the most interesting sites in Belarus. It has never been razed to the ground, much of it has survived, and I started looking for ties connecting its history with Brest. The series of my historical portraits include a portrait of Nicholas Radziwill the Black. Print shops in Brest and Nesvizh operated under his patronage and in his possessions. The most outstanding edition of his print shop was the Brest Bible, initiated by Nicholas Radziwill the Black himself; he also paid all the costs, thanks to which that Bible is also known as the Radziwill Bible. His son, Nicholas Christopher Radziwill the Orphan, was a significant figure for Nesvizh. Therefore, it was decided to supplement the series with his portrait; and I am glad that Nesvizh will be the first town that will see in my works the Old Brest that vanished from the face of the earth”. Anastasia Fetisova