Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law & Technology

A New Plan for a Sustainable Colour Industry: Ecology of Colour

It is that time of the year again, the winners of the Henry van de Velde Awards have just been announced. As usual, there is a wide range of intriguing ideas and projects in the various categories - Business Innovation, Consumer, Crafts, Design Research, Digital Product, Environment, Graphics, Habitat and Spaces.

The final selection wasn't easy as the jury had to go through 435 entries, but the projects selected are innovative and inspiring and go from an advanced system to collect batteries (Pars Pro Toto by Bebat - recyclable steel drums with an active Internet of Things (IoT) system that monitors both filling level and temperature and prevents accident during transport) to a medical device called Morphemat® that allows healthcare providers in Intensive Care Units (ICU) to lift and change the position of patients of up to 150 kg effortlessly (and if you have ever assisted someone who is bed-ridden you know that, while there are special mattresses to avoid pressure ulcers and improve oxygenation, changing the position of the patient is not easy and can put a strain on the time and the health of care providers).

In the Design Research category there is a project that may change the perspective on colours of ordinary people, and of designers in particular. 

"Ecology of Colour" is a project by Maria Boto, a researcher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK)/School of Arts of University College Ghent, Heleen Sintobin, design researcher at Laboratorium, biolab of KASK and a lecturer in Autonomous Design at KASK, and Laboratorium, an experimental bio laboratory for art, design and biotechnology of KASK & Conservatorium.

The research examines the environmental impact of the colour industry and tries to develop a sustainable approach to colours.

Boto, Sintobin and Laboratorium have indeed been working on developing ecological inks with pigments from microalgae on the one hand (Laboratorium has so far developed beautiful notebooks printed with microalgae pigments, but also a watercolor palette) and, applying them to various materials (paper, textile and bioplastic, for example) and through various techniques (screen printing, digital printing, painting, 3D printing...), creating a sustainable palette of structural colours found in nature.

In living creatures, structural coloration is the production of colour by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light.

These structures are made up of simple biological building blocks - such as cellulose, chitin, keratin and melanin, biodegradable and non-toxic biomaterials - that are common in nature. 

Using nanotechnology, Laboratorium cultivates an ecological and sustainable color palette of structural colours, growing these iridescent colours inspired by living creatures such as hummingbirds, beetles and blue morpho butterflies, from black melanine.

In the last few months, Laboratorium tried to capture structural colours by growing them onto glass, porcelain, textile and PLA. 

This research bridges nature and design, combining together arts, science, technology and biotechnology, categories that will be blended together even more in future years to create innovative products and exciting jobs.

We will find out who will be taking home the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards per category during the presentation of the Henry van de Velde Awards on 8th February at Bozar, in Brussels, Belgium. The Lifetime Achievement, Young Talent, Company, Ecodesign by OVAM and Public Gold Awards will also be announced then.

In the meantime, we can all help determine which entry wins the Public Gold Award by voting online at henryvandevelde.be from today till 23rd December 2021.

Stamp Collector Chic: Poste Italiane X Gucci

We do live suspended between the physical and the digital worlds, yet communications mainly take place in a digital realm nowadays - with emails, messages on social media and chats via mobile apps.

That said, if you like fashion, still have a passion for writing the odd letter or postcard to a friend, are looking for a Christmas present for a fashionista or want to tap (without going bankrupt...) into the current "House of Gucci" trend while we wait for Ridley Scott's film (with Lady Gaga starring as Patrizia Reggiani), look no further than the Gucci stamp.

In September Poste Italiane (the Italian Post Office) and the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, released a stamp to celebrate Gucci's 100th anniversary.

Part of the series entitled "The excellences of the manufacturing and economic system" promoting the "Made in Italy" brands, the stamp, printed by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in rotogravure, is inspired by the trademark Flora print and features the brand's logo and the words "Dal 1921" (Since 1921).

The print was originally made for Gucci by Vittorio Accornero de Testa in 1966 and it turned throughout the decades into the House's most iconic and distinctive design of the brand.

The 1.10 euros stamp, issued in September in a circulation of 300,000 copies, is the result of a collaboration between Gucci itself and the State Mint.

They also released a special collector's limited edition folder in 3,000 copies (18 euros, but on eBay you may find it for around 50 euros...) with a custom envelope containing an A4 philatelic folder with the single stamp, a quatrain of stamps, a stamped postcard, an envelope for the first day of issue and an identification card.

The folder also features a short text signed by the CEO of the brand, Marco Bizzarri, and by Creative Director Alessandro Michele, highlighting how the brand "was born out of a dream. A dream of beauty and entrepreneurship, Italian style."

This is not the first time the Italian post office pays tribute to a fashion house: in the past there have been stamps celebrating Armani, Gianfranco Ferré, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Krizia and Laura Biagiotti. Yet, design-wise, this is surely the most colourful stamp ever released dedicated to a fashion house and the most original since it has an oval shape.

The stamp and the folder are available from the stamp collection counters at Italian Post Offices or on the poste.it website (deliveries have been a bit slow with orders made in September sent between October and November).

While this may not be as technologically advanced as a Gucci NFT, it is maybe more engaging as you may use it to write to a friend and surprise them. Critics defined Alessandro Michele's early collections for Gucci as "librarian chic", but this is definitely more "stamp collector chic".

The Great Cashmere Heist Anybody?

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of films and series about great money heists, from ironic ones to more serious and dramatic adventures, involving gangs of crazy, evil and good-looking thieves with grand ideas and perfect plans. It is instead more unusual to see a great cashmere heist, but it happened last week in Italy.

On the night between 11 and 12 November thieves broke down the gates of the Sillavengo-based (province of Novara) warehouse of cashmere clothing manufacturer Loro Piana. The thieves, comprising six people wearing hoods and gloves, placed two heavy vehicles at the entrance and exit of the town and, after having isolated it, they used two more to break into the warehouse of the company from which they stole eight cartons full of garments in just a few minutes.

After an alarm at the factory went off, a chase with the carabinieri started, but the gang ran away shooting and throwing nails to punch the wheels of the cars (a technique used by bank robbers usually) and also a fire extinguisher. Eventually, the pursuers gave up and the pursued ended up against a road barrier and escaped through the fields (they are still sought after at the time of writing this post). Four boxes of sweaters were retrieved from the van that crashed, but the other vehicle managed to escape.

The authorities were surprised by the detailed plan à la Diabolik that seemed long-thought-out (the vans used to block the roads were stolen a few weeks earlier in Lombardy, around the Milan area) organised by professional thieves. The damage estimate for Loro Piana has yet to be quantified, but from the videos of the company's surveillance cameras the carabinieri hope to be able to trace useful clues to discover the identity of the robbers.

Yet, maybe such a rocambolesque heist is not surprising: in an age in which money has dematerialized and many have invested in cryptocurrencies, maybe even thieves are looking for something more tangible and luxurious to sell on the black market.

In the meantime, the media described the robbery as "cinematic". Who knows maybe one day we will have a film entitled "The Great Cashmere Heist", after all, luxury criminals are definitely trending, considering that Lady Gaga is starring as Patrizia Reggiani, Maurizio Gucci's black widow, in Ridley Scott's much-awaited "House of Gucci".

Bikini Bottoms May Be Gone from Beach Handball, But Sexism Remains

In a previous post in July we looked at the case of Norway's Women's Beach Handball Team that opted to wear shorts instead of the required bikini bottoms during a game at the European Beach Handball Championships.

The European Handball Federation wasn't pleased and fined each player 150 euros (the total fine amounted to €1,500 and American pop singer Pink offered to pay the sexist fine) for "improper clothing". According to the International Handball Federation regulations of the game, women had to wear close fit bikini bottoms with a side width of 3.9 inches maximum and a sports bra when playing official games, while men's uniforms consisted of shorts that are "not too baggy" and 10 centimeters above the kneecap and a tank top. 

The Women's Beach Handball Team's protest managed to attract people's attention towards sexism in sport and helped the team spreading the message about a shockingly nonsensical rule, making us all realise the time had come to change it.

Last month, the Handball Federation agreed to change uniform rules: the accusation of sexism prompted them to bring in a new uniform for women, comprising short tight pants with a close fit and tank tops instead of bikini bottoms and crop tops. The men's uniform remains instead unchanged.

So, in a way, sexism remains as, after all men's shorts should not be "too baggy" and "must remain 10 centimetres above the kneecap", while the new regulations mention that women's pants must be "tight". In sport you must be able to dynamically move, but you wonder why the focus remains on "tightness" for women, almost an emphasis on anatomy, and on "not too baggy" for men, an expression that seems to point at comfort. 

Besides, during severe weather conditions, the regulations state that "players will be allowed to use uniforms composed of tight shirt and long tight pants (down to the ankle and not to the knees)", which makes you wonder why there was all that fuss about the shorts favoured by the Norway team in the first place when you can actually wear leggings to play this sport.  

So, while bikini bottoms may be gone, in the end the solution is not a win, as differences between men and women's uniforms remain (the regulations state that "Athletes' uniforms and accessories contribute to helping athletes increase their performance as well as remain coherent with the sportive and attractive image of the sport" - so it is clear that the Federation is interested in promoting the visual power and appeal of this sport using the athletes' bodies).

While the new uniform may encourage more girls to take up this sport, there are still many battles to fight, not just regarding other sport uniforms (track and field, beach volleyball and tennis, just to mention a few ones, while German gymnasts served us a lesson at the latest Olympic Games with their full-length bodysuits...) but against sexual harassment in sports and, obviously, in everyday life.

Behind the Scenes of Museum Conservation at The Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Life hasn't been easy for museums all over the world in the last year: multiple lockdowns due to Coronavirus shut them down. When they reopened, first partially then properly, they had to adapt to new rules and regulations, those health security protocols that have been reshaping our lives in the last 18 months.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam was actually already shut when Coronavirus hit Europe last year, since it is going through a major renovation (it may reopen in 2028); but, in the meantime, works continued on a new and exciting institution linked to the museum, the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Devised as a building where to preserve the art collection of the museum - covering seven centuries of Western art history and boasting 151,000 works of art, including more than 63,000 paintings, photographs, films, pre-industrial and design objects, contemporary art installations, sculptures and 88,000 prints and drawings - the Depot has been developed in the last four years, even though there were plans for such a structure as early as 2004. The structure was originally planned after the cellars under the museum became unsafe and unsuitable for storage due to flooding.

Located in the Museum Park in Rotterdam, the Depot isn't therefore a proper museum, but, at the same time, it isn't just your conventional warehouse inaccessible to visitors where an art collection is kept.

The Depot is indeed seen as a new opportunity, a structure that stores the museum collection, but that is open to the public to allow visitors to get an insight into the life of a museum.

The decision to opt for such a solution came after considering that museums all over the world generally display an average of six to ten percent of their collections, while the remaining part of the artworks is hidden away in external warehouses and depots located in industrial areas or, when possible, loaned to other institutions or sent for exhibitions in other countries.

This is the main reason why Sjarel Ex and Ina Klaassen from the Directorial team Boijmans Van Beuningen, call the building a "new typology", as the collections treasured here are also open at the same time to the public. So this is the perfect place where you can see art, enjoy architecture and have a break (it includes indeed also a rooftop forest and a restaurant called Renilde that opens up on the city).

But this is not just a place where you can fill your eyes with beauty: one important point of the Depot is presenting to younger generations the jobs of the people working here, getting acquainted with the art of restoration and conservation and maybe even decide to opt for this career in future. Walking around the Depot will indeed explain visitors what it means to choose a piece to add to an esteemed collection and what implies to preserve these pieces with the utmost care. In the next few months visitors will be able to look at the specialists working in the restoration studios on Van Gogh's "Poplars near Nuenen" or Kusama's "Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli's Field (Floor Show)".

The Depot is also a work building, this means that the collection and research department work here on registration, loan traffic, conservation, restoration, facilitating and conducting research.

The Depot will definitely be a key hub linked to the museum when the latter reopens, but, at the moment, it acts as the nerve centre of the main institution during its restoration.

There is not just the collection to discover here, but also the building. The 15,000 m2 Depot, designed by architectural firm MVRDV and located next to the main museum building, features a futurist shape and a reflective façade divided in over 1,664 panels, that allows it to blend it into its surroundings in a striking way, reflecting the city surrounding it.

The rooftop forest integrates trees such as birches and pines that were prepared for their new home in a nursery for three years. Their roots are interconnected, allowing them to withstand stormy weather even at a height of 35 meters.  

Accessibility is the key behind this building: everything is displayed to allow visitors to learn more and conduct their art and historical researches. Works of art in the new depot are stored, organised and displayed according to size and climatic requirements rather than on the basis of art movement, era or maker, with five different climate zones, suitable for different materials such as metal, plastic, paper, black and white and color photography.

Collection objects are packed, hanging from a rack or displayed on shelves in one of the fourteen storage compartments, or exhibited in one of the thirteen large floating glass display cases in the atrium. Collections that are usually less accessible, such as prints, drawings and photos from the relevant depots, can be studied upon request.

Some sub-collections, such as the film and video collections, have been completely digitised for conservation reasons but also to allow more access for the public to view them in a film room and in two small booths. 

Besides, part of the building is leased as storage space for art from private collectors and for corporate and private collections that may also become open to the public if the tenant allows it. 

Moving all the collection here was not a mean feat, it was indeed a monumental task as objects had to be measured two years prior to the rehousing operations to make sure that they fit into the new racks and shelves.

Among the art highlights there is the video installation "Het leven verspillen aan jou" by artist Pipilotti Rist that can be experienced daily after sunset in the public space between the Depot and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

The main architectural highlight is instead the atrium with the intersecting stairs, a see-through floor (a great idea to display textiles, for example, as it gives the impression to visitor to walk on a colourful magic carpet) and large glass showcases containing collection pieces. These showcases, designed in collaboration with artist Marieke van Diemen, are furnished with art, fashion and design, with works by Iris van Herpen, Auguste Rodin, Carolein Smit, Carel Fabritius, Suzan Drummen, Gijs Frieling and Job Wouters, and Sarkis.  

Opened at the beginning of November during a special ceremony with King Willem-Alexander, the Depot is the first building of its kind that breaks with the "hidden artwork" tradition to make all the "invisible" pieces in storage finally visible. You can bet that, at some point in the near future, we will see a runway show in or around the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Will There Ever Be a Blockbuster Exhibition about Fashion & Architecture?

Fashion designer Christopher John Rogers was awarded the coveted American Womenswear Designer of the Year prize at the 2021 CFDA Fashion Awards that took place yesterday in New York. Telfar Clemens for Telfar excelled once again in the accessories category, while sustainability fans may be happy to know that Patagonia won the Environmental Sustainability Award and Yeohlee Teng received the Board of Directors' Tribute honor.

For several years now, Teng has been an advocate of zero waste designs, making the most of a length of fabric, and often producing garments made up of precise geometric forms assembled together to create a piece in which geometry is invisible.

In her collections she therefore often put emphasis on a mathematical and scientific approach to fashion, recycling unused pieces and piles of fabrics and integrating them in other designs.

In the past she has taken inspiration from unpredictable weather, a symptom of climate change, but, throughout the years, she remained loyal to geometrical and architectural inspirations.

The award poses one question linked with an early '80s fashion exhibition: Teng was among the designers featured in the "Intimate Architecture" exhibition that took place in 1982 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The event juxtaposed fashion and architecture, something that at the time was considered pretty cutting-edge.

Six germents by Teng, among them capes, coats, suits and dresses, were selected to be part of that exhibition: they represented syntheses of movement and stillness, light and darkness (Teng often explored contrasts of light and darkness strategically adding black lines against the icy-white panels of a coat for example), depth and surface (when marked in white, the spaces receding between pleats look as if they thrust forward in Teng's designs, creating optical illusions and three-dimensional effects).  

The exhibition catalogue at the time highlighted how her forms, defined "ecclesiastical", were located in art rather than fashion.

Reducing lines to essential forms allowed indeed Teng to align with modernist sculptors such as Richard Serra (in 2017 the Phoenix Art Museum organised an exhibition that juxtaposed Yeohlee and Serra), and architects (in another exhibition Teng was compared to Malaysian architect Ken Yeang, while her Spring/Summer 2006 collection incorporated a study of suspension bridges and the work of Parisian architect Robert Mallet-Stevens, with Suspension Dresses incorporating skirts that could be hoisted with cables or straps to provide volume and surface articulation; a dress from the Autumn/Winter 2006-07 collection was instead based on catenary curves) rather than fashion designers.

At the same time, her main focus remained the body of the wearer, and the designer always refused to conform her shapes to the contours of anatomy, retaining a concern for the wearer's comfort and mobility.

Modern simplicity was embodied already in Teng's early collections that featured geometric sheaths with squares or triangles on a contrasting field of colour, while simple capes guaranteed the wearer an imposing presence.  

So the question linked with this award is very simple: isn't it about time that some major museum out there would organise an exhibition about fashion and architecture? There have obviously been smaller events in museums and galleries revolving around this theme (including the "Energetics: Clothes and Enclosures" at Berlin's Aedes Gallery in 1998 and the travelling exhibition "Skin and Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture" in 2006-2007), but no blockbuster exhibition.

It would be intriguing instead to finally see a larger event that may explore how the links and connections between the two disciplines mutated throughout the years, with architecture going from a source of inspiration for many fashion designers who explored in their collections building methods, tectonic properties and a wide range of architectural concepts, to more modern collaborations between designers and architects.

The Allure of Painting with Fabrics

As seen in the previous post, we can use fabrics to make a sculpture, but, according to Amsterdam-based Dutch designer Antoine Peters, it is also possible to use recycled fabrics to paint. At least that's what he has started doing with his "Soft Dot" series.

In the last few years, Peters has been experimenting with textiles, coming up with innovative solutions like his lenticular weave. His passion for clothes and textiles, but his aversion for a fashion system that is unsustainable and polluting for the planet and incredibly stressful for designers and for their teams, has prompted him to look for other solutions and for more arty ventures.

The "Soft Dot" series is the latest of his adventures in fabrics: Peters started studying colours, textures and shapes and then tried to reinterpret them through textile abstractions.

For these works he takes some second-hand fabrics and clothes, strategically cuts them and reassembles them together and then uses them to create a canvas, on which he tucks, folds and pleats by hand the textiles.

The making of the "Soft Dot" series is therapeutic for the designer, but the dot also refers to a symbol of creation and a metaphor for a new beginning. By reusing discarded clothes and fabrics for these pieces, the designer makes a point about fashion, quantity and overproduction.

Besides, the canvases have got an even deeper meaning for people who commission him these pieces: his sister, for example, asked him to create a "Soft Dot" from clothes she wore when she was pregnant, so, in this case, the clothes incorporated in the canvas become a physical material that evokes memories.

Peters also did other types of soft three-dimensional sculptures: entitled "Space Garments" and displayed during Dutch Design Week, they look like knotted and tangled masses of extra long legs or arms, from which a hand or a foot emerges.

Bizarre, surreal and funny, while they may be metaphors for the many traps of fashion that engulf and swallow us, they have one main purpose, attracting people's attention and forcing them to look and think. This is also the main aim of all Peters' projects - exploiting the power of wonder and delay.

The artist and designer recently created a new site-specific "Space Garment" piece especially for the Cupola of the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht (people will be able to experience it from 26th November until 1st December at Bonnefantenmuseum as part of the local Fashionclash Festival).

Peters was recently part of a project aimed at children that also took place in Maastricht - the Voelstof workshops - a  collaboration between fashion designers Daisy van Loenhout, Esra Copur, Anouk van de Sande x Vera de Pont and Iris Desiree Claessens.

In this "Residency for Responsible Fashion", the designers invited primary school kids to talk about their emotions - from amazement and happiness to anger - in an engaging and playful way through a dress up game, developing their social skills and strengthening their resilience through a form of non-verbal communication with fashion and textiles.  

The Allure of Soft Sculptures

When we think about sculptures, we tend to imagine pieces made with hard materials - maybe marble, stone or wood. But it is possible to sculpt with fabrics and foam as well.

Turin-based Sara Enrico uses for example the vocabulary of art and the glossary of tailoring to create her pieces: her sculpture "RGB (Skin)", recently bought by Termoli-based MACTE is made with foam covered with a printed polyester textile.

Yet, when you look at the abstract sculpture from a distance you get the illusion it may be made with some kind of hard plastic-based material or maybe with varnished or lacquered metal.

Enrico has been working on new ways to manipulate fabrics and has a penchant for exploring surfaces and the relationships between body, garments and space, using a variety of materials, including canvas, pigments, cement, concrete, technical fabrics and industrial and digital processes.

The more you look at "RGB (skin)" (that will be officially unveiled at MACTE later on this week), the more you know that, at some point, some fashion designer out there will do a collaboration with this artist, maybe integrating her pieces into body-morphing designs, creating in this way soft, wearable sculptures.

Image credits for this post

"RGB Skin" (2021), Sara Enrico, photographs by Cristina Leoncini

Unbalancing Historical Accuracy with Modern Details: Doey Lüthi's Costumes for "La Calisto" at Milan's La Scala

Mondays can be dreadful, especially when it comes to inspirations, so let’s get the creative wheels in motion with opera.

Rarely performed, "La Calisto" is just back at Milan's La Scala: this new staging (running through 13th November 2021) features the direction of David McVicar and the musical acumen of Christophe Rousset, his Talents Lyriques and a group of musicians from the orchestra of La Scala, and it is complemented by a talented cast comprising Chen Reiss (Calisto), Olga Bezsmertna (Diana), Luca Tittoto (Giove), Véronique Gens (Giunone) and Christophe Dumaus (Endimione).

"La Calisto", by Francesco Cavalli and with a libretto by Giovanni Faustini, was first staged almost 370 years ago, on 28th November 1651, at the Teatro Sant'Apollinare, in Venice. At the time, it drew limited audiences for its run of eleven performances, even though the theatre was equipped with complex stage machinery intended to impress the audience with a grand spectacle.

The story is based on the myth of Calisto from Ovid's "Metamorphoses". A nymph and a devout follower of Diana, Calisto attracts the attention of Giove (Jupiter) who falls in love with her. To seduce her, the god transforms himself into Diana. When the love story is discovered, Calisto is expelled from Diana’s group and transformed by Jupiter's wife into a bear. She will be eventually set among the stars as Ursa Major ("the Great Bear").

The new staging at Milan's La Scala combines two myths, Giove's seduction of Calisto, and Diana's adventure with Endimione.

Modern audiences will relate to the opera for its boldness, its references to female pleasure, and homoerotic nuances, with gender twists and transformations (Giove as Diana seduces Calisto, but his disguise also attracts the attention of Endimione...), mirrored in the singing styles with the baritone singing in a falsetto voice.

The sets by Charles Edwards feature a celebration of the scientific revolution in the 1600s, with references to philosophy, science and politics. The huge telescope on stage is a symbol of scientific research pointing at the stars: in this representation Endimione the shepherd is actually a thinker and an astronomer who supports independent thought and the only character capable of using the telescope.

The costumes are designed by Doey Lüthi, who studied in Switzerland and the United States, and currently lives and works in Berlin.

Lüthi had to work from scratch as the materials preserved in archives regarding this opera do not include any specific indications about sets and costumes, but only mention the fabrics chosen to make them and the names of the artisans who made them.

As "La Calisto" is a mock-heroic opera, Lüthi created historical costumes with some modern and occasional punk twists that unbalance the historical accuracy of the designs, revealing a profound link with the present and allowing in this way the characters to reach out to modern audiences.

Calisto and the other nymphs in their pale pink corsets with padded hips, may not have been out of place on a Jean Paul Gaultier's runway; Diana the hunter is a Valkyrie-like warrior in an attire worthy of a super heroine, with chainmail skirt and corset, accessorized with an extravagant huge metal moon on her head that reminds us she is a patroness of the countryside, of hunters, and the Moon; Endimione looks like a character in a Frans Hals painting, but he also wears Converse-like sneakers and rather hip socks with prints of chains.

The grotesque and comical Satirino (Damiana Mizzi) wears fur pants, matched with a cropped black jacket embellished with appliqued elements and a gold epaulette, while Silvano is a sort of rag and bone man, his attire made with layered cascades of recycled fabrics in fifty shades of green.

All the characters move around the big telescope that turns into a metaphor in these days in which too many people are still denying the validity of science (and of vaccines...), reminding us all that, well, we may still be lying in the gutter, but we're definitely looking at the stars.

Travelling Dolls for Travelling Performances: "Monnula - Dolls Who Migrate" by Tamara Cubas

Coronavirus has redesigned the way we work, meet and entertain ourselves and even though at the moment we are currently living in a post-Covid world, some institutions are continuing to look for innovative ways to connect artists and spectators through unconventional formats and languages.

Production platform Samara Editions, for example, offers spectators a new experience - performances by post.

One of the artists commissioned by Samara to create this experience is Tamara Cubas with her project "Monnula - Muñecas que migran" (Monnula – Dolls who migrate), co-produced with Spielart Festival in Munich (the project kicked off there in October), Vooruit Arts Centre in Ghent and Teatro Linea de Sombra in Mexico City.

Uruguayan choreographer and visual artist Tamara Cubas often creates participatory and immersive installations and for this project she collaborated with a group of craftswomen from the Comcáac community of Punta Chueca in Mexico.

Local artisan Maria Oralia Ortega and a team of women made 500 dolls following local traditions. Each doll was then packaged in a box with a travel diary that features the story of the doll and the ancestral traditions of her makers and that includes some blank pages.

By buying a ticket for this performance, a member of the audience orders one of these boxes that it is then delivered to their address. The performance activates when the member of the audience takes the doll, adds some notes to the travel diary and sends it to another person.

As each spectator chooses a new destination for the doll, new connections are activated and the historical and cultural origin of the doll is enriched with information about other countries and cultures.

In this way, a new shared cartography is traced through the journeys of the doll that becomes completely free: nobody owns it indeed but she can travel from one place to the next, creating a cross-border community of audiences, spread world-wide.

Rather than being just a simple toy made with leftover fabrics and destined to children, the doll becomes a powerful symbol, a metaphor to discuss key social issues, embodying women's experiences of migratory travels and developing a dialogue about cultures, religions, traditions and global issues.