#FramedinBelarus: Towards Solidarity. Exhibition opens in Norway
On August 24, 2024, at the Kunstbanken Center for Contemporary Art (Hamar, Norway), the Stitchit art collective, together with Amnesty International Norway's Senior Advisor for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Ana Tusvik Bonde, will open exhibition #FramedinBelarus: Towards Solidarity.
"It has been four years since the residents of Belarus took to the streets to protest against the stolen presidential election. Peaceful demonstrations filled the cities, factory workers went on strike, and journalists with artists documented the unfolding events. Acts of civil disobedience spread, all fueled by a profound sense of hope.
However, these four years have also been marked by relentless persecution. Arrests continue to this day, interrogations, torture, trials and detention cells have become a grim reality. That is a terrible price paid by hundreds of people for daring to speak freely. While it may be difficult to imagine ourselves in these situations, empathy and solidarity unite us in the darkest of times. Sometimes, this connection is born in the simple act of creating: a tiny piece of embroidery or a text dedicated to those who have been silenced.
The exhibition, #FramedinBelarus: Towards Solidarity, guides us through the shadowed corridors of oppressive state systems to a collective embrace of compassion and a shared wish for justice," said the organizer of the exhibition, artist Rufina Bazlova and curator Sofia Tocar.
The exhibition will feature, among others, embroidered "portraits" of human rights defenders of Viasna: the head of the organization and Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski, volunteer service coordinator Marfa Rabkova, and volunteer Andrei Chapiuk.
Program:
August 24, 2024
13:00–13:30 — exhibition tour with Rufina Bazlova;
14:00 — opening reception;
August 25, 2024
12:30–15:30 — embroidery workshop with Rufina Bazlova. Read more here.
The exhibition will be open until October 6, 2024.
Framed in Belarus is a social art project dedicated to political prisoners in Belarus. Over the past years, Rufina Bazlova has been creating embroidery patterns depicting Belarusian political prisoners, and people join in and embroider their "portraits" using the traditional Belarusian technique of embroidery with red thread on a white background.
