Chaliezin Mikalaj

Chaliezin worked as a journalist for the Imia and Naša Svaboda newspapers, was deputy editor of the Naviny newspaper, and an organising committee member of the Charter'97 civil initiative.
He was the founder and artistic director of the VITA NOVA Centre for Contemporary Art.

In 2005 Chaliezin and his wife Natalia Kaliada founded the Free Theatre, which has since gained popularity in Belarus and abroad.

Between 1999 and 2008, he was arrested four times in Belarus for political reasons. In 2002 he was sentenced to a short term in prison. In 2011 he illegally left Belarus and now lives in London.