Hundreds gathered at Amsterdam’s NDSM shipyard to spend half an hour as the voice of people dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s regime tries to erase from public space. The performance A Percussion Piece — also known as “A Strike Against Silence” — turned pots, buckets and lids into a collective act of solidarity.

On 19 September 2026, on the eastern side of the NDSM wharf, a large-scale participatory performance took place. Its author is Belarusian media artist and curator Maxim Tyminko, based in Amsterdam. Organiser and producer: antiwarcoalition.art.

According to Euroradio, citing the Human Rights Centre Viasna, 414 people took the stage in cardboard masks bearing portraits of Belarusian political prisoners. For about 30 minutes they struck pots, cans, buckets, lids and other everyday objects — building one shared soundscape.

Not noise for its own sake

Tyminko’s idea is simple and hard: each participant “holds” one face — a specific person behind bars. A QR code on the mask links to that prisoner’s short story. Striking metal is not spectacle for its own sake; it is a refusal to treat silence as normal.

“This project was never just about making noise. It is about refusing to accept silence as the norm,” the organisers said.

Organisers had invited up to 1,200 participants — a figure that echoed the scale of repression and Tyminko’s earlier work with thousands of portraits. People of many nationalities came, some from other cities. Artist Andrei Dureika, who stood inside the sound field, said there were not many spectators — and they were not the main audience. The people on the tribune were.

Before the strike

Before the sound piece, former political prisoners spoke — including lawyer Maksim Znak. Musicians warmed up the site. Participants gathered for about two hours: meeting, receiving masks, taking places on a temporary grandstand. Check-in ran from 14:00; the performance itself was around 16:00–16:30, per makenoise.art.

Partners included Politzek.me, Viasna, Libereco, MÀRA, PEN Nederland, Pavetra, JUST and NDSM. Support came from ArtPOWER, the Cultuurfonds and Vfonds.

Video as a separate artwork

Professional documentation is meant to become a standalone artwork shown at other venues. For Tyminko it continues a practice of confronting viewers with the faces Lukashenka’s regime tries to make invisible: first databases and portrait sequences, now a live collective strike in European public space.

The action came just ahead of the International Day of Peace on 21 September. The message is plain: freedom is fragile — and silence must not own it, in Belarus or anywhere else.