A GALLERY showcasing international art photography has opened a new exhibition in Pontypool.

Earlier this year, the Kickplate Project officially launched their gallery 76m2 in Commercial Street, Pontypool and have now opened their fifth exhibition.

The show, entitled ‘Pagan’, opened yesterday on Tuesday, July 11, displaying solo works from Belarusian photographer, Andrei Liankevich, who documented folk traditions in the Belarusian countryside.

A statement from Zosia Krasnowolska, of the Kickplate Project, said the photos explore the traditions maintained by communities when Belarus was “forced to accept monotheism in the 10th century”.

“People were unwilling to give up on their ancestors’ traditions and either continued practising them or incorporated them into the Christian celebrations,” she said.

“These customs still survive and Andrei captured them in black and white and also published them as a book.

“We’ll be showing a selection of images that we hope will resonate with the Welsh audience, who might see similarities between some traditions, like Midsummer Night celebrations, but also discover ones that are completely different.”

The exhibition will run until Friday, August 4 and will be open at the gallery from Tuesday to Saturday between 11am and 6pm.

The Pontypool gallery also has a darkroom, which photographers can use free of charge.

For more information on the ‘Kickplate Project’ and for past exhibitions, visit http://thekickplateproject.weebly.com/

Andrei is a photojournalism lecturer in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the organizer of Month of Photography in Minsk. He’s also part of SPUTNIK, a collective of Eastern and Central European documentary photographers.

For more info or to see his work, visit: http://liankevich.com/