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FASHION2001
LANDED
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WALTER
VAN BEIRENDONCK It would seem that the body is the fatal adversary of our Imaginations; the time-honoured Greek separation of body and mind. Our fantasies about ourselves can have a force that is highly imaginative, but in reality our image is simply that of our body. This is inevitable. There is also evidence of a separation, or tension, between body and mind in fashion, in the things that are displayed in MUTILATE?. People attempt to make the image of their body answer to the way in which they fantasize themselves, or rather their image. The way these fantasies arise is not important here. The result, the body-Image, is determined by traditions, prescribed behaviour, phantasms and the available technology which the body is increasingly unable to resist. 'I think we have now reached a phase where the body is starting to get the worst of it. It is not the skin, the hair or the shape, but the whole body that is now being manipulated. We have bio-genetics and its technology, and plastic surgery; in fact, experiments are now being done quite literally with flesh itself. Maybe the body is simply becoming an extension of fashion. It becomes very clear in MUTILATE? that the boundary is gradually disappearing. When Lepore walks naked through the crowds in New York, it is seen as a fashion statement, not nudism. She has taken her body so far that it has almost become a garment, a creation. This is the limit that has now been reached. If an image of the future could be the evolution of the principle of the avatar, then the phenomenon of Amanda Lepore comes very close to this.' Another theme is RADICALS. Radical signifies a narrowing of the spectrum, following a line to its furthest logical point, making profound changes in ordinary life. Is this the starting point of an avatar? 'Yes, it is. Those statements that force a response and thus start to prise loose generally accepted attitudes and thought patterns.' |
Do
you think that the metamorphoses that determine and are the essence of fashion
can come about only through radicalness? 'Radicalness is very important. Evolution can be nourished only by radicalness. Constant confirmation doesn't lead to anything. Nothing at all happens. And this is no good for fashion. This is why I see RADICALS as an essential part of the exhibition. Of course, radicalness defines itself with regard to an environment or a certain moment. So one must not expect to see a series of shocking images dripping with blood, because now romanticism is radical and this is because its predecessor was power. There comes a time when something is so well integrated in the fashion world that its complete opposite could become a radical statement. And in fashion the degree of radicalness often depends on the moment in time that this happens.' 2WOMEN: Gabrielle Chanel and Rei Kawakubo. Did you choose them for their radicalness? 'That was not the main reason. I thought it was important to have different points of view, and as well as the three themes we have already discussed, I also wanted to show passion in some way. I felt that the approach here should be through people who have shown that individual decisions and attitudes can have far-reaching consequences in the fashion world. I found Chanel and Rei Kawakubo the perfect women to illustrate this, because of the way they created a momentum and broke taboos in fashion at two different points in time, but with the same impact. Consequently I realized that these two women belonged together. In some way they were the perfect illustration of what I think of as passion.' -> next |
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