The number of officially recognized political prisoners in Belarus currently reaches more than 1432 people.
The project aims to create portraits of each illegally convicted citizen using the traditional Belarusian embroidery technique of red thread on a white background, thereby recording an important era of Belarusian history with a folk code - ornament.
Participation in the project is a gesture of creative solidarity, allowing individuals to symbolically support those affected by the dictatorship and share their stories through the non-traditional tool of political protest - cross-stitching.
The embroidery process is a long and meditative experience that allows participants to concentrate on their thoughts and feelings for a particular prisoner. By creating a portrait of a political prisoner, participants sacrifice a little time as an act of solidarity.
Already, more than 400 people around the world have become "ambassadors" of the project, stitching portraits of political prisoners individually or in groups. The final form of the project will be a collective canvas of all the embroidered portraits, symbolizing the intertwining of political events and human destinies.
The project is a continuation of the series "History of Belarusian Vyzhyvanka" , created by Rufina Bazlova in 2020-2021, and is run by the Stitchit Collective. Through the #FramedinBelarus project, the collective creative process allows individuals to speak out against injustice and stand in solidarity with political prisoners in Belarus.