Ongoing project based on experimental and theoretical research that explores the relationship between memory (individual / collective) and clothing in order to translate the formal mechanisms of memory and its inevitable failure. Reminiscences of a material past [anamnese : ruin] by the mimetic evocation of a recognizable fragment - part of an iconic piece of clothing that reflects a direct connection with those who wear / see. Fragments of an object recognized as whole. Related to the space of collective memory [a fragmentary wardrobe] that can be reconstructed by the viewer through the juxtaposition of the parts.
As memento-mori that make us think of death [Remember you must die...] these objects are created to remind us of forgetting. The material - wax [perishable] - refers to thoughts about our own mortality [the wax melts, burns], and it is organic [it is implied an organic change inherent in our own bodies]; it interested me as a material-metaphor for memory.
Socrates in his Phenomenology of errors [Theaetetus] expresses the absolute necessity for the use of wax by his description of the ability to retain memories, avoiding their forgetfulness [oubli] and, at the same time, lose them again by continued forgetting, deleting them or melting them, making them fade [effacing].
CREDITS
Film 2010, London DVD, 03'46'', COL
Direction & Concept Lara Torres Photography Matilde Travassos Assistant Vitor Ramalhão Editing and Post-production Mário Carvalhal Sponsor for mini-shirt Citex Porto
Special thanks to University of the Arts London and MUDE Design and Fashion Museum of Lisbon