Fight Like a Girl

Alena Davidovich’s works borrow the visual code of street art and apply it to the gallery. The artist combines textual and visual messages to recreate a recognizable aesthetic. Her site-specific works form a single narrative that blurs the boundary between individual pieces and creates the feeling of a continuous artistic expression. “Fight Like a Girl” was created in 2020 for the exhibition Belarus. Art of Resistance in Amsterdam. Stylistically, Alena’s works are both graffiti and protest posters. Many have become popular symbols of protest. Like the artist’s artwork, protest posters often include drawings and designs in addition to words.

The central element of Alena Davidovich’s work is the popular slogan for the women’s and feminist movement “Fight Like a Girl” — a phrase that reflects the strength of weakness. Combining the phrase “be like a girl,” meaning weak, gentle and fragile, with the verb “fight” creates a  message that defines the new strategies of resistance and tactical lines of struggle. The artist underscores the important role of weakness in the Belarusian protests. As the artist herself said, “The wall painting was made to draw attention to a new creative approach in non-violent resistance where the game changers were mostly women.”*

*Text from the catalog for the exhibition 'Every Day' in Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kiev