2beMAG

[You can read an extended multimedia version of this article at 2beMag #11, with catwalk video and photogallery included!]

Gareth Pugh was born on august 31 1981 and is a British fashion designer that has known he wanted to be a fashion designer during his whole life. At the age of 14, he started working as a costume designer for the National Youth Theatre, and when it came the moment to decide what to study; he started his career at the prestigious Central Saint Martins in London, which finished in 2003. It is interesting to know, that while studying, he interned with Rick Owens in Paris.

His final collection at Central Saint Martins was made with balloons that accentuated model’s joints and limbs, which has been his trademark forever and which also attracted the fashion editor of the magazine Dazed and Confused and placed one of his designs on the cover of the magazine. This, and the fact that he showed his creations at the Alternative Fashion Week in London, caught the attention of the group Fashion East, who invited Pugh to participate in its autumn 2005 group show. The collection he presented really got the critic’s attention and had very good reviews. Pugh solo premier was in London’s 2006 fall shows and, since then, his collections keep being very well received. Anna Wintour had declared to be a notable supporter of Pugh’s designs, as well as the singer Kylie Minogue, who was the first person to buy a piece from him and, since then, she has never stoped wearing his creation in her shows and public appearances.

In terms of style, he could be considered among those designers that understand fashion as an art performance, such as Alexander McQueen or Vivienne Westwood. More than taking references, Pugh says that his collections are, somehow, autobiographical and are really inspired, too, from Britain’s extreme club scene. Pugh’s designs are known for the experimentation he does of forms and volumes, frequently creating “nonsensically shaped, wearable sculptures” which distort the human body.

Among the materials he uses, we can find PVC, latex, parachute silk and foam, among many others. He is known for revitalizing British and European fashion and by his exuberant imagination and his theatrical conception of fashion, transmitting an unreal feeling. Until 2007, his clothes were only made to be shown at the catwalks but were unavailable to purchase. Now it is time to see if he is just an amazing fashion artist or if he can also give a good result in terms of commerce. By now, we are starting to see how he is slowly introducing more wearable creations within his collections, and we know he has partnered with major manufacturers to produce some of his pieces, which can be understood as a way of starting to be a designer for people, and not only for the show.

[text by Laura Sunyer]

[You can read an extended multimedia version of this article at 2beMag #11, with video and gallery included!]

The capabilities of video of seeping into the thoughts and connecting with the memories or the emotions of the mind is an advantage of this art compared to other artistic expressions. Fabio Scacchioli, the Italian filmaker plays with these possibilities by focusing on the connections between memory, perception and thought.

Educated at the University of Perugia and at the University of Madrid, Scacchioli has projected his films and installations in exhibitions and festivals around the world including the United States, Cuba, Germany, United Kingdom, Serbia, Venezuela, Italy, etc. Lately, he has been seen in the Streaming Festival in Holland where he presented Nightlife in a puddle, a personal view after a stormy night. Currently participating in the exhibition Open 3 on S.a.L.E Docks – Magazzini del Sale of Venice with his latest work, From a land of ashes and mist, an experimental documentary about the history of a living between dreams, debris and memories.

His works are characterized by the use of modern technology together with old camcorders, and editing software combined with manual labor. A personal artistic method used to obtain images of low quality or damaged.

dead SEEquences – Fabio Scacchioli from Fabio Scacchioli on Vimeo.

The video that we present you and follows this article is titled: Dead SEEQuences , the image of a female body that appears and vanishes in the shadows and cuts. The artist is able to question the origin of the figure by asking if we visualize the woman from the parties represented or from the shadows to hide it, or if your image is defined by each frame individually or from the gap between each. It is at this point that the piece consisting of 3,770 frames becomes empty or dead. The artist is able to question the reality of everything represented by manipulating the image of a body, the tangible reality of the human being.

[You can read an extended multimedia version of this article at 2beMag #9, with the featured video!]

When the body loses its limits.

The use of new technologies in art production is a consolidated reality nowadays. Cinema, videoart, netart etc, they all use technology as a way of expression. But what happens when those technologies become the main character of the artpiece? Chunky Move is an Australian dance company founded in 1995 by artistic director Gideon Obarzanek. Since then, they have opened an amount of 25 shows around the world and have gained a great recognition because of its unpredictable and risky style. Its proposals show a perfect fusion between body and technology, the dancers moves while dancing become a dialogue, and they use resources such as lighting, beams of light and projections that go beyond any expectative.

The majority of the company’s proposals have as an objective to explore human’s behavior in view of their desires, conflicts and emotions. The lights and sounds build this way of confronting the world that is not always rational. Nowadays, some of its shows such as Glow, Connected or I like this, are being performed in really important cities like New York, Monaco or Melbourne. Now, we present you a video where is performed one of their most successful shows, Mortal Engine. A performance which combines dance, music, video and light beams and in which movement and sound together generate projections that distort the dancer’s body’s limits. The choreography responds to the beings moves without a specific form that try to connect and wrap themselves over and over again. It is an almost magic representation about the human’s figure’s metamorphosis.

[Article written for 2beMAG #9 by Lorena Vilela]

[You can read an extended multimedia version of this article at 2beMag #11, with photogallery included!]

Olivier Theyskens was borne don January the 4th of 1977, in Brussels, Belgium. Son of a chemical engineer and a homemaker, he dreamed, when he was a child, to be a girl and be able to wear skirts and look like a princess. So it wasn’t surprising when, at the age of 7, he claimed that he wanted to do Haute Couture.

In October 1995, at the age of 18, he finally got to starts the studies of fashion design at the École Nationale Superieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre, but within a year he felt that he was losing time so he dropped out to start his own label. He was only 19 years old. His first collections were defined as gothic extravaganzas and were made out of bed sheets his grandmother had given him. He created an amount of 25 designs which were shown at a showroom in Paris. There, one of Barneys stylists saw the collection and fell in love with it, wanting to buy it all, which Theyskens refused. Even so, the collection was shown at Barney’s shop windows during a few weeks, where Madonna saw them and fell in love with the creations. She finally wore one of his dresses in 1998 to the Academy awards, and since then, the name of Olivier Theyskens has been known by all the fashion industry. He finally had to close his label because he didn’t have enough money to create it. So he started working as a costume designer at the Théâtre de la Monnaie even though he never stopped creating dresses as a pastime.

In 2002, the French brand Rochas, well known for its perfumes and not so much for its fashion lines, selected Olivier as the new creative director. His first collection, presented in 2003, was amazingly claimed by the critics and, since then, he created a completely new silhouette for the brand, very elegant and French influenced.

In 2006, Theyskens was rewarded by the Council of Fashion Designers of America with the International award. However, Theyskens designs, really magical, special and fantastic-world-belonging, didn’t really fit within the ready-to-wear market and either within the idea of Haute Couture and its rules, so it wasn’t being really profitable for the brand. The designer’s refusal to create a marketable accessories line and the fact that he didn’t give importance to advertising ended up with Rochas’ demise.

In 2007 he was named artistic director at Nina Ricci, where he presented a more commercial line. After presenting three collections in the house, his contract, which was expiring on 2009, was never renewed and his position was taken by Peter Copping, from Louis Vuitton.

Nowadays, Andrew Rosen, Theory’s CEO, has hired Theyskens to design a capsule collection that has already been presented and that will be sold this summer. Theysken’s style is a perfect mix of old, gothic and romantic time’s nostalgia with the actual figure of the modern woman, very strong and active, and, overall, really feminine.

[Article by Laura Sunyer]

[You can read an extended multimedia version of this article at 2beMag #14, with video included!]

Ramon Guimaraes / Barcelona Spain. Degree in Fine Arts and Master in Interactive Audiovisual Communication at the University of Barcelona. He is developing his work in Barcelona. At 2009 realized Identity Code, an individual exposition at the Gallery Espace Ample. He had performances at Matadero (Madrid), at LA LABORAL (Gijón), at the MACBA, at the Joan Miró Foundation, at the Centre of Art Santa Mónica and at the Gallery Espace Ample of Barcelona, among others.

His project “Profile” was choosed by the creation space Off Ample to be the reference image of Project Gender IV “male universe”.