The #FramedinBelarus project aimed to tell the story of every unjustly convicted Belarusian citizen and create portraits of them using the traditional Belarusian embroidery technique with red threads on a white background, thus capturing an important period of Belarusian history through the ornament of the national code.
The embroidery process is lengthy and meditative, which allowed us to focus on our thoughts and feelings about the person arrested. Time is what is taken away from a person in prison, and time is the small sacrifice we make when we create a portrait of a political prisoner.
About the embroideries of prisoners: The embroideries bear a short story about their arrest and the offence. The project had a social action character. Those who decided to take part in the project after registration received patterns and instructions for the embroidery, the address of the prison where the person is held and information on how they could support the convicts. The embroidery process became a form of meditation on the fate of the prisoners. In the context of the whole project, the key to freedom was a collective action. The final form of the project was a common quilt of all the embroidered portraits, a tangible symbol of intertwining political events and human destinies.
Stitchit is an art group created in 2021 by visual artist Rufina Bazlova and curator Sofia Tocar. Together they work on burning socio-political issues using the traditional technique of embroidery as a tool of resistance and dialogue. Stitchit involves different communities and individuals into the creation process and blurs the lines of authorship.