Framed in Belarus

Social art project dedicated to political prisoners in Belarus

Start stitching
Ala Lapatka Siarhey Hatskevich Tatsiana Kaneuskaya Pyatro Marchanka Vladzmir Zmurauka Marina Kirilchyk Dmitry Kubarau Dmitriy Dubkou Viacheslav Rahanchuk Ales Pushkin

The number of officially recognized political prisoners in Belarus currently reaches more than 1432 people.

Each and every one of us has the opportunity to speak out against injustice through solidarity and collective creative process.

The aim of the #FramedinBelarus project is to tell about each illegally convicted citizen of Belarus and create their portraits using the traditional Belarusian technique of embroidery with red thread on a white background, and as a result - to record an important era of Belarusian history with a folk code ornament.

The process of embroidery is a long and meditative experience, allowing participants to concentrate on their thoughts and feelings for a particular arrestee. Time is what is taken away from a person in prison and time is the little we can sacrifice when creating a portrait of a political prisoner.

Participation in the project is a gesture of creative solidarity, allowing us to symbolically support people affected by the state regime and share a story about their experience using a non-traditional tool of political protest - cross-stitching.

The final form of the project will be a collective canvas of all the embroidered portraits and will be a material symbol of the intertwining of political events and human destinies.

The project is a continuation of the series "History of Belarusian Vyzhivanka" , created by Rufina Bazlova in 2020-2021.