Image from Rufina Bazlova’s series entitled The History of Belarusian Vyzhyvanka, which uses the traditional folk embroidery medium to depict the ongoing peaceful protests in Belarus, the artist’s home country. Each tableau corresponds to an actual event during the Summer–Winter of 2020. Vyzhyvanka is a pun combining two Belarusian words, “embroidery” and “survival.” Vyshyvanka means “embroidered shirt.” Vyzhyvats' means “to survive.” Based in the city of Salihorsk in the southern Minsk region, the Belaruskali Factory specializes in the production of potash. Its workers went on strike during the first days of the revolution, thus halting the mining. In the picture, they are burying a cockroach—a metaphor for Aliaksandr Lukashenka used by blogger Siarhei Tsikhanousky in his election campaign. Tsikhanousky also made a slipper (the folk weapon for killing cockroaches) a symbol of his campaign.
