about the project
Historically, Belarusian women could neither read nor write, and embroidery and weaving were almost the only way to depict the surrounding life. This is how special geometric patterns arose that conceal many meanings and symbolism. For example, red symbolizes blood or life, and white freedom and purity. We can say that Belarusian ornaments are a kind of code of our national history, written by women, and which can be read as a text or a message.
The political events around the elections in Belarus are part of our great history, which needed to be written down with the code of folk embroidery. Therefore, on the basis of this technique, a series The History of the Belarusian Vyzhyvanka was created. The title of the series is based on a linguistic pun. „Vyzhyvanka“ is the name of the technique of traditional belorussian embroidering; „vyshyvat” means to embroider in Belarusian, while „vyzhyvat“ means to survive. Because under the conditions created by the regime, the Belarusian people are just forced to survive. All images in the series are original documents and are based on real events or illustrate specific Belarusians.
Folk embroidery was used as a talisman against evil spirits, I want to believe that it has not lost this power in our days!
