Rufina Bazlova

Rufina Bazlova (; born 1990) is a Belarusian artist based in Prague. She gained international renown for her 2020 series The History of Belarusian Vyzhyvanka, which uses the traditional embroidery craft of vyshyvanka to depict the protests in Belarus.

Biography Bazlova comes from the large city of Grodno in western Belarus. She studied in Plzeň and later worked in Prague as a set designer and performance artist. She received her master's diploma in illustration and graphic design from the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň in 2015. Bazlova moved to Prague and completed a bachelor's degree in scenography at the Academy of Performing Arts in 2020.

Work In August 2020, thousands of people joined the protests against Alexander Lukashenko's disputed re-election, including many artists. In response to the disputed results of the Belarusian presidential election, Bazlova designed her first protest embroideries and posted them on Instagram. Bazlova uses traditional Belarusian embroidery to create critical art. The figures, which look like pictograms, are in the national colors of white and red of the Belarusian opposition. The technique of applying red thread to white fabric with cross stitching evokes the vyshyvanka technique, a local folk tradition. The embroideries, which at first seem harmless, become digital narratives and thus a testament to the Belarusian mass protests.

Since the early Middle Ages, vyshyvanka, the East Slavic patterns in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, have been embroidered on clothing. Motifs of that time were about love, the sun, or protection against evil spirits. Bazlova's depictions include tanks, helicopters, fleeing people, swastikas, cockroaches, and dump trucks. Among protesters in Belarus, the cockroach symbol is code for President Alexander Lukashenko, who has brutally quelled mass protests since the allegedly rigged presidential election in August 2020. Bazlova's art provides insight into the female-driven democratic resistance in Belarus.

Bazlova creates her designs digitally; In the embroidered comic Zhenokol (Feminnature) Rufina Bazlova presented themes on feminism in the folk tradition. Together with Sofia Tokar, Bazlova founded Framed in Belarus, a social art project that addresses the situation of political prisoners. On the occasion of the Charlemagne Prize award in 2022, Rufina Bazlova exhibited current works in Aachen.

In August 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wore a shirt designed by Bazlova at the opening of Independence Week. Bazlova also designed the New Year's card for the German Federal Foreign Office in 2022.

Awards 2021: The second prize on III Biennale of Artistic Textiles in Poznan

Exhibitions (selection) Solo exhibitions 2023: Such a Minsk flag installation Das Minsk Potsdam 2022: Outpost Kunstverein Dresden 2022: Vyžyvanka pro.story Zlín 2022: Ein Roter Faden Suermondt-Ludwig Museum Aachen 2021: Nici z demokracji Galeria Browarna Łowicz 2021: The History of Belarusian Vyzhyvanka UCLA Library, Los Angeles 2022/23: Politics Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, Kraków 2022/23: What is the Proper Way to Display a Flag? Weserburg Museum für Moderne Kunst (Modern art museum) Bremen 2022/23: Manifest yourself Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin 2022: The Medium is the Message: Flags and Banners The Wende Museum at The Armory, Culver City, USA 2021: Demo Mode Society Galerie ASPN in Leipzig 2021: Patchwork Le Radar, Bayeux