www.benaki.gr
deste.gr/maria-papadimitirou
www.arch.uth.gr/M_Papadimitriou
ΦIRMA GYPSY GLOBALES
The dress of the Gypsies (Roma) can be the vehicle for an anthropological and sociological investigation of a way of life whose most prominent characteristic is movement and non conformity to a dominant order. The Gypsy people have long been scattered throughout Europe and have to this day preserved their autonomy, living in closed nomadic groups that rely on a heightened sense of tradition in matters of identity, dress, physicality, sexuality, material culture, family and relations between genders.
Today a series of economic and social shifts have been the cause of widespread déclassement (a form of downward social mobility) among social groups, the result of which is a class diaspora analogous to the nomadism of the Roma that has ensured their survival to date.
The activities of ΦIRMA GYPSY GLOBALES help reconstruct the history and genealogy of a Gypsy fashion house (whose ‘founders’ we follow from early twentieth century Romania to France, Italy and, lastly, Greece). The brand designs and manufactures lines of accessories, apparel, and objects which are represented alongside actual objects used by the Gypsies in their attire as symbols of the rituals that inform the tribe’s laws and relations, setting behavior patterns and determining cultural and aesthetic representations of the body.
Thus, a hybrid narrative device develops to explore issues of individual and collective identity, and explain the importance the Gypsies attach to their attire as a thing that singles them out visually. ΦΙRMA GYPSY GLOBALES is a comment on the notions of appropriation, displacement, inauthenticity, copying, mimesis, and variation. It also proposes an interpretation of the constant transformation of symbols and life practices, alongside such contemporary trends as reusing and recycling.
The project includes the publication of a special edition which archives all relevant anthropological and historical content and is interspersed with instances of artistic reappropriation. -
See more at: http://deste.gr/fashion-collection/maria-papadimitirou/#sthash.lbL9fcet.dpuf
DESTEFASHIONCOLLECTION: 1 έως 8 (DESTEFASHIONCOLLECTION: 1 to 8) DESTEFASHIONCOLLECTION: 1 έως 8 (DESTEFASHIONCOLLECTION: 1 to 8) The exhibition marks the second collaboration between the DESTE Foundation and the Benaki Museum. Through a series of solo and group contemporary art exhibitions hosted at the Benaki Museum, this collaboration between the two institutions aims to promote new and radical developments in contemporary art practice, introduce upcoming artists and important artwork to a wider public, and help inspire novel curatorial approaches. The destefashioncollection is an incremental, evolving project conceived by the DESTE Foundation to consider and trouble the boundary between art and fashion. Each year since 2007 the destefashioncollection has commissioned an artist to survey that season’s International fashion offerings and to select five related works. These pieces form the artist’s own capsule collection. The artists who have participated so far in the destefashioncollection project are: Michael Amzalag & Mathias Augustyniak (M/M Paris)- 2007, Juergen Teller - 2008, Helmut Lang - 2009, Patrizia Cavalli - 2010, Charles Ray - 2011, Athina Rachel Tsangari - 2012, Diller Scofidio +Renfro - 2013, Maria Papadimitriou – 2014. The exhibition DESTEFASHIONCOLLECTION: 1 to 8 assembles the first eight years of capsules and projects. It seeks to compare the artists’ fashion selections and their interpretations, and to expose the ligatures, relays and exchanges within the components of the collection, which also include artists' books and publications produced especially for each capsule. Neither solely about fashion or art, the exhibition builds on the tensions, affinities, and distance between the two and the problem of contemporariness revealed in their relationship. This project will be anchored to the DESTE website, as a temporary microsite (www.destefashioncollection1to8.gr/), and will also be present in the exhibition galleries. Exhibition curating and design: Nadja Argyropoulou, Adam M. Bandler, Mark Wasiuta. The exhibition will be closed from 4 to 17 of August. Between 1-3 and 18-31 August visit is possible by appointment (tel +30 210 27 58 490 +30 210 275 8490). |
