The embroidered message on a synthetic ribbon — Of course, this is naive — connotes several meanings, most obviously sifted from the anthropology of Soviet-era nostalgia, as reflected in the material of ribbon used by schoolgirls in Belarus and the use of the Soviet-era rug in the background. However, starting from 2020, Belarusians have also associated ribbons with protest rituals, namely makeshift flags made out of white and red ribbons. People tie them to fences to express their discontent with the regime and support the protest, and the artist's utterance here works on multiple levels, both as a marker of her provincial identity and as a critical statement about the protest tactics.
