Collection

The sculptural object used in the video takes the form of women’s shoes. A high heel in the shape of the Soviet red star pierces the artist’s own heel, and every step she takes in the metal shoes causes her pain. The attribute of femininity proves to be a tool for discipline and control. Alluding to this characteristic motif, Ala Savashevich takes her place within a long tradition of feminist art commenting on women’s social situation. Despite the battle over many years for equal rights, the process of women’s emancipation is not over yet. The Soviet red star embeds this universal issue within concrete geopolitical realities. Savashevich’s generation never had contact with the Soviet system and Soviet authority in their own conscious life. But even today, 30 years after the collapse of the USSR, citizens of Eastern Europe can still be judged through the prism of the totalitarian past of their countries and must struggle with stereotypes tied to their place of origin. The artist addresses the difficult historical and social legacy of the collective, which for her also has a personal dimension.

Visual artist, creator of sculptures and video works, often in the form of on-camera performances. She is a sculpture graduate of the Belarusian State Academy of Arts in Minsk and the Wrocław Academy of Fine Arts. She uses various materials, and is noted for her monumental objects made of felt. In her artistic practice she wrestles with issues of identity, memory, trauma, and gender and physicality in a social and political context. She often alludes to historical phenomena and their impact on modernity. She lives and works in Wrocław.