London College of Fashion Aware: Royal Academy of the Arts Art Fashion Identity International Symposium London College of Fashion is delighted London College of Fashion is committed This two-day symposium is exemplary to be a partner in this exciting and to extending the influence of fashion, of the relationship that the college challenging exhibition, and to be able be it economically, socially or politically, continuously strives to develop between to provide contributions from some of and we explore fashion in many its own internally mandated activities the college’s leading researchers, artists contexts. This exhibition encapsulates and programs with broader discourses and designers. vital characteristics of today’s fashion and practices within the fields of art and education, and it supports my belief that design. With the recent appointment The relationship between art and fashion has the potential to bring about of London College of Fashion Curator, fashion, through conceptual and practical social change when considered in contexts Magdalene Keaney, and significant expression, is at the London College of of identity, individuality, technology and developments to the Fashion Space Fashion’s core. We were immensely proud the environment. Gallery at London College of Fashion to endorse the development of ‘Aware’ we now intend to increase public from its original concept by Lucy Orta, We see this in the work of Professor awareness of how fashion has, is, and London College of Fashion Professor of Helen Storey, whose ‘Wonderland’ project will continue to permeate new territories. Art, Fashion and Environment, together brings together art and science to find real The opportunity to work with the Royal with curator Gabi Scardi. Additionally, solutions for a more sustainable world, Academy in presenting ‘Aware’ has been we are privileged to support two new and in the exploration of craftsmanship, instrumental to our vision for this, and I commissions by Yinka Shonibare and patronage and historical practice in the look forward to future collaborations. Hussein Chalayan, the creation of which work of Professor Dai Rees. will directly connect to our teaching and Professor Frances Corner OBE research activity. Head of London College of Fashion Image Credit: Acconci Studio Umbruffla, 2005–10 Silk, chiffon, radiant film, cotton thread, boning, 114.3 x 152.4 x 114.3 cm © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2010 Introduction Professor Lucy Orta The exhibition and symposium Aware: Along with a group of similarly Art Fashion Identity has evolved out of disheartened designers I began a deep necessity to expand the definition searching for alternative means of and role that clothing plays within our expressing the deep changes that were society. It has taken almost twenty years taking place in society. of questioning and research (and a lot of frustration) finally to bring together a We once again find ourselves in a time series of fellow artists and designers who where the pressures of economy, the share the same dedication to agitating social tensions brought about by wars the definition of fashion and demonstrate abroad and the stringent austerity that clothing is a powerful instrument for policies at home are forcing us to communication that we have a tendency reassess our positions and values. It is to choose, use and discard too arbitrarily. time once again to look at our ability to incite transformation at the individual The questions I began posing were and collective level, to seek alternate generated by an uncomfortable doubt interpretations that allow us to openly in my successful career as a young manifest change – fashion can be a fashion designer and, not withstanding, powerful channel of expression that linked directly to the economic decline operates across the social, political and throughout the early 1990s. The first Gulf ecological spheres of society. War, followed swiftly by a stock market crash as well as mass unemployment I hope the non-exhaustive selection leading to general social unrest, stood in of artists and their work that we are stark contrast to the superfluous fashion presenting in the exhibition and the we had been observing in the extravagant symposium will provoke us, even just catwalk shows. a little, to look and think about clothing differently. Monday 6th December Saint Mary’s Church London, W1H 1PQ Nearest tube: International Symposium Edgeware Road / Marylebone 17:30 – 16:00 The Skin Tellers Losi drew from the tales of whale’s Registration being toured across Europe as circus-like The artistic research of Claudia Losi attractions to stage her own tour, which 18:00 – 18:30 focuses on the relationship between began at Viafarini in Milan (2004) The Skin Tellers human beings and nature, on travel as continued to a square in Lerici, Liguria, exploration and an opportunity to gain two museums in the cities of Guayaquil A performance by Claudia Losi, in knowledge. Experience-based practices and Quito in Ecuador, the cloister collaboration with Antonio Marras are central to this work and are explored beside the Marino Marini Museum through a range of different disciplines, in Florence, and the Ikon Gallery in 18:30 – 20:00 from the natural sciences to geography Birmingham (2008). Rountable discussion and cartography, literature and poetry. Through the use of embroidery and In the process she recorded the Chaired by Christopher Breward with other techniques, the artist reproduces memories, narratives and communities Jonathan Watkins, Mark Henderson, the rhythms of transformation of lichen, through which the whale traveled in a Philip Hoare, Tom Baker, Carol Alayne, glaciers and geological maps, sewing series of workshops and interventions. Shaun Cole a material link between nature and To conclude the project, Claudia Losi human action. decided to enact a rite of passage and transformation: Les Funerailles de la The Skin Tellers serves as the latest Baleine (Whale Funeral) took place Champagne & Canapes in the Rootstein incarnation of Losi’s Balena Project, during a 24-hour performance, on Hopkins Gallery c/o The National which she began formally in 2004 with 16/17 October 2010, in an old textile Media Museum (Speakers Only) the creation of a 1:1 scale model of mill near Biella. With the participation a fin whale, made from men’s suiting of fashion designer Antonio Marras fabric. The project had developed the whale has been transformed into out of Losi’s childhood memories of a number of suit jackets, embroidered searching for whale fossils near her with the stories the whale collected hometown of Piacenza, and developed along its journey. The jackets will into an exploration of deeper historical, be on display as part of the GSK geological, and anthropological Contemporary exhibition at the Royal dimensions of man’s longtime fascination Academy. They will also be animated in with this great mammal of the sea. the context of an evening performance at St. Mary’s Church in London’s Marylebone district, worn by actors who will in turn read from the stories generated throughout the project as part of a live sound composition. Photographs: Courtesy of Claudia Losi Tuesday 7th December London College of Fashion 20 John Princes Street, W1G 0BJ International Symposium Afternoon Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus 10:00 – 10:10 Memory and Trauma 16:30 – 17:30 Opening Address by Frances Corner Roundtable w/Questions & Response 14:00 – 14:25 10:10 – 10:20 Presentation by Gabi Scardi 17:30 Opening Address by the Curators of Closing Address by Lucy Orta the GSK Contemporary Exhibition 14:25 – 14:45 Marie-Ange Guilleminot Politics and Intervention 14:45 – 15:05 Drinks and Refreshments 10:20 – 10:45 Maja Bajevic Presentation by Dr. Anthony Downey 18:30 Performance and Display Opening of the Fashion Space Gallery 10:45 – 11:10 Vito Acconci 15:05 – 15:25 Presentation by Kaat Debo 11:10 – 11:40 Nasan Tur 15:25 – 15:45 Jessica Bugg 11:40 – 12:230 Roundtable w/ Question & Response 15:45 – 16:05 Alicia Framis Media and Manipulation 12:30 – 13:00 Film by eX De Medici, introduced 16:05 – 16:30 by Magdalene Keaney Tea 13: 00 – 14:00 Lunch The Fashion Space Gallery at London College of Fashion is a contemporary exhibition space in central London presenting a regularly changing programme engaging with global fashion, design, photography and installation. eX de Medici/Vexed Generation runs from: 08 December 2010 – 29 January 2011 Monday – Friday: 10am – 6pm Saturday 10am – 4pm Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus Speakers Vito Acconci Maja Bajevic Christopher Breward (b. New York, United States) (b. Sarajevo, Bosnia) (b. Bristol, United Kingdom) Vito Acconci’s works across a variety of Bajevic studied at École des Beaux-Arts in Christopher Breward is currently the disciplines, including film and video, sound, Paris. Focusing on a variety socio-political Head of the Research Department at the sculpture, performance, photography issues, Bajevic uses performance, video V&A Museum. He has held lecturing and architecture. In the 1970’s Acconci’s and installation pieces to investigate both posts in the History of Art and Design at radical practice helped shift art from personal and universal identity. Focusing Manchester Metropolitan University and object to interaction and he turned gallery on the themes migration and identity, the Royal College of Art. Before working & museum viewers into participants and the marginalisation of the alien and a at the V&A he was Head of Research at inhabitants of the space. He founded the contradiction between the local and the London College of Fashion, University Acconci Studio in the 1980’s with a group global, her work interrogates the political of the Arts, London, where he still holds of architects based in Brooklyn New York. and economic structures of our Age. Her a Visiting Professorship. Christopher sits They draw from computer logic and from video work Double Bubble (2001) focused on on the Editorial Boards of the journals mathematical and biological models and the misuse of religion in modern society, ‘Fashion Theory’ and the ‘Journal of their approach to architecture explores while another video, Back in Black (2003), Design History’.