Busch - MerimetsanAlchemy

8/8/2019 Busch - MerimetsanAlchemy

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MerimetsanAlchemyMerimetsanAlchemyMerimetsanAlchemy alchemic research of fashion, photography and social therapy


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MerimetsanAlchemy by Otto von Busch, Sirja-Liisa Vahtra and Diana Lui and Merimetsa. | ISBN: 978-91-976431-1-5 | Printed in Tallinn, Estonia for exhibition at HOP gallery, Tallinn, 14.06.- 03.07 2007.

The project was generously supported by: French Cultural Center in Tallinn, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Society of Arts and Craft of Gothenburg

Edited and published by Selfpassage (www.selfpassage.org) | Photos by Diana Lui (www.99medusas.com) | Project and exhibition organization by Sirja-Liisa Vahtra

MerimetsanAlchemy


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MerimetsanAlchemy took place at the Me-

rimetsa rehabilitation centre in Tallinn, Esto-

nia in May 2006. As a participatory fashion and

social therapy project it aimed at intersecting

value production from fashion with manifold

hands-on therapy work, replacing some of the

sweatshop like production processes at the cen-

tre. The endeavor was a reection of both inner

and outer change and the process took form in

the shape of garments and photographs.

Part one of MerimetsanAlchemy, the RE_TALLiationproject, began in spring 2004 as an intervention prob-

ing fashion as a tool for social work rehabilitation. The

one-month long collaborative work took place at the

rehab center Merimetsa in Tallinn, Estonia. The aim

was to blend fashion production values with social work

rehabilitation hence adding fashion value to the textiles

sewn in the Merimetsa workshop. This shows how the

shallow values of fashion could socially enrich the

therapy work at Merimetsa. The project was an open

call to suggestions and customization in all steps of pro-

duction, from co-design and production to customer

service improvements as well as fashion shootings at the

rehab center. The projects garment collection went on

sale in a local fashion store and was sold out immedi-

ately.

The purpose of both these projects,Merimet-sanAlchemy andRE_TALLiation, was to update the exist-

ing modus operandi of production into a new format,

a new process of operation, and make it run in another

way. The idea was not a forced social experiment but a

small-scale local gesture. These projects were a search

for a magic intersection between social therapy, em-

powerment and fashion for both workers and garments

at Merimetsa.

MerimetsanAlchemy, as part two of this project

furthers the exploration of intersecting the polyphonic

fashion system with rehab production. This time the

strategy was to widen the interface between production

situation and the consumer, not through a mimetic ap-

proach to fashion photography, but by respectful docu-

mentation of the work in Merimetsa. Instead of com-

promising with the aesthetics and modes of production

from fashion this step aimed at deepening the social

therapy work withfashion as an alchemic tool.

To understand both fashion and alchemy we

must relate these practices to a concept with which they

are both deeply entwined; the concept ofmyth. Fashion

and alchemy are both usually seen as unserious prac-

tices with neither the social value of the ne arts nor

the accuracy of the exact sciences. But myth is neither

the opposite of science, nor is it a deception or untrue

image of the world. Myths are the powerful imagina-

tive fabrics we weave our world with. Myth does notveil reality but makes it visible, and just like fashion we

live our lives inside it. It wraps the world with a holis-

tic threadwork; not fragmenting the world into atom-

ized and isolated data but weaving the narratives of the

world into visible and tangible shapes.

Though generally regarded as shallow and

ephemeral, fashion is one of the strongest myths in con-

temporary society. Fashion can be regarded as another

layer of the world, relating to deeper transformations in

the lived experience.

The world of fashion does not claim to access

an eternal truth, and does not exist in the same time

frame as science. To better understand this we can ex-

amine the concept of time, which according to ancient

Greeks was two-folded; Chronos andKairos. Modern sci-

ence has emerged from the concept of Chronos, time assequential duration and linear cause and effect relation-

ships. The chronological time is a quantitative mode of

measurement, and what we today have as a main con-

cept of time the time we can measure. Suffering can

be chronic, but passion can never be. Both passion and

fashion lives withinKairos, the momentary and the un-

determined special occasion, the passing instant of den-

sity and depth where opportunity and life is exposed. It

is the time of the carpe diem, the energy of the very

now and of being in the ow in the zeitgeist. Fashion

is one with its zeitgeist, and cannot be visible outside it.

When brought to the world where Chronos is exposed, to

science, the archive or museum, fashion is just a dead

skin. Perhaps a well tailored piece of clothing, but with-

out life and social form.

To say that fashion is to dress like everyone

else, but before everyone else might sound true from

a chronological perspective, but misses all magic of the

vivid occasion and the passion of the moment.

With its connection to the life of the passing

instant, fashion is always deeply connected to change

and transformations. Not only the transformation of

form/garment, what we usually regard as fashion, but

the deeper change of our dreams, aims and behaviors

elements our identity is made of. Fashion is a myth of

the moment, taking shape as our second skins through

which we live in the world.Alchemy is the practice engaging the transmu-

tation of matter and should not be misunderstood as

a new age revival of healing, mysticism and astrology.

Instead it is the methodic search for inner change sym-

bolized by outer transformations. The medieval experi-

ments of turning lead into gold were mere symbolic acts

of a larger task; turning sinful soul to higher spirit. Un-

derstanding alchemy as this deeper journey can make us

see how fashion can act as a symbol of inner change.

MerimetsanAlchemy was a project processing the

hope of inner and social change through highlighting

a possible intersection of fashion and therapy. Alchemy

has always been a practice collecting curiosities, open-

ing viable passages into the unknown. But it has never

been an aimless meandering. Instead it has been a vivid

quest of spirituality through various means. As men-tioned by French scholar of esoterism Antoine Faivre,alchemy is both a way of life and an exercise of vi-

sion. In its dynamic quest for transmutation of matter

and spirit, alchemy has through history been working

with the actualization of the possible. The possible in

this case is not a l inear extrapolation from the actuality

of here and now. The possible is also not the shad-

ow of reality, as Wittgenstein believes is philosophys

greatest misunderstanding. Instead reality is a shadow

of the possible.

This is a position of hope and of empower-

ment. The possible is at hand, and we can form it and

give it shape. It is a position where things are open for

change and where the imaginable is in uid form, ready

to transform and crystallize into reality.


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MerimetsanAlchemy


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In a similar way we should not understand fash-

ion as a question of adding symbolic labels and brands

to the social skin, but a spiritual passage in direct con-

nection to how we bring form to our identity.

Thus the matter ofMerimetsanAlchemy was made

of fashion and myth. But it is important to understand

that fashion is not the garment itself, nor a piece of fab-

ric with a label. It is not the image in a glossy magazine.

It is the projection of myth onto garments and the at-

titude and relation to this myth at the same time.

This brings us to the materialization of Me-

rimetsanAlchemy and the photographic images producedduring the project. The fashion image is an icon. It is a

passage to a higher ideal, a divine but unattainable ide-

al, the quintessential beauty. We relate to it, as through

a passage. We adore it because we aspire to look andbe

like it. Contrary to portrait photography, fashion pho-

tography dictates acting, not looking.

Portrait photography is a passage to the soul

of others. We perceive the same light through the im-

age that once hit the iris of the photographed subject.

We have a relation of reection, a deeper connection

between two subjects and souls. The photographs of

MerimetsanAlchemy are an amalgam between fashion and

portrait photography.

The material of the project was thus both gar-

ments and images, closely entwined through the proc-

ess. The garments produced were an apron and a ki-mono-style jacket in rough canvas working fabric and

very light linen. They were adjustable in size and easy

to change into, and as such combined two functions: as

work garments as well as elegant leisurewear. On one

hand a sturdy garment for the cultivation of matter, on

the other a thin veil of draped dreams. The transforma-

tion of both apron and kimono can be seen as a cook-

ing process of turning raw ingredients into rened food

as well as an interplay of roles and identities, combining

domestic utility with understated elegance.

The garments and their creators were docu-

mented by the photographer Diana Lui who has for

a long time consciously worked with the photographic

image as an honest portrait interface. The images she

produces show a sincere commitment exploring the

question of how we relate to ourselves in time. Her

operative craftwork and thorough piercing research on

the subjects portrayed acts as a tool for revealing con-

sonance and tension between the masks and roles we

enact in everyday life.

With the photographs as manifestations of the

fashion process and a window between two parallel sit-

uations of change, the portraits are used as a passage

for mutual existence. The world of production mirrors

to the world of consumption, but it is in the mirror the

transmutation takes form. The situation at Merimetsa

is revealed to the viewer by using a large format cam-era with negatives in 8 X 10 inches and an early 20th-

century camera. The profound and intimate process of

these portraits is a time-consuming procedure, creating

a connection between two contexts, Merimetsa Reha-

bilitation Center and Fashion as an alchemic tool.

These large format portraits act as a direct win-

dow between situations of hope and focus the work on

the process of intersubjective change between these ac-

tors in two different settings. Not seeing them as two

separate entities in each end of a production line, but

instead as two interconnected existences bridged by the

garment and with the photograph as an honest witness.

Focusing on this connection might bring a better under-

standing and exchange of mutual hope in situations of

similar inner work.

This connection between both contexts isthe manifestation of alchemy in the MerimetsanAlche-

my project bridging the inner and the outer world.

Bound by trust the process is sensitively developed on

each side of the camera, creating a situation similar to

an interface. Not the passive consumption of a glossy

fashion dream image, but a gesture towards a deeper

understanding of the relation between Merimetsa and

the photographer. It acts as a complement and contains

a wider eld of action as opposed to photographys im-

manent tendency of single-sided communication (the

photographer as operational master of the situation)

leaving more room for the model and photographer on

both sides to create the photographic image. A deep

surface of mutual transmutation.

The camera lens in this case becomes an eye of

mutual attention; a meeting of two intentions, wills and

souls witnessed by the photographic lm. Summon-

ing the models attention to the lens is one step in a mu-

tual attempt to transgress unintentional and habitual

poses in front of a camera. As the two attentions meet

(photographer and model) during the long process of

common understanding, a certain presence of being is

created between the two partners. The portraits reect

this deep process of mutual exchange with the photo as

materialized memory of a tacit agreement. It sums up

an alchemic process of garment design and rehabili-tation creation/production witnessed by the alchemic

processes of photography.

The exhibition at Gallery HOP is made to

reect the alchemic process developed through the

project. The visitors are encouraged to become partici-

pants, to witness and reect a process of inner change,

and to relate to it by trying on and wearing the garments

produced at Merimetsa. Perhaps these garments can

be a passage to self-engagement and become personal

sewing activities. Perhaps they can be portals through

which we can proceed with inner transmutation.

So lets try it on and step onto the stage. Say

goodbye to shyness, passivity and gloominess and en-

gage instead in forming our own attitude and relation

to the second skin. Raise your consciousness to seize

the moment and live passionately through the originalbeautiful myth of fashion!

by Otto von Busch, Sirja-Liisa Vahtra, Diana Lui

and the fantastic people at Merimetsa.

Literature:

Antoine Faivre: Esotericism

inHidden Truths: Magic, Alchemy, and the Occult,

(edited by L. E. Sullivan)

Karen-Claire Voss: Spiritual Alchemy

in Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Moder n Times,

(edited by R. van den Broek and W.J. Hanegraaff)

Ludwig Wittgenstein:Notes on Philosophy


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MerimetsanAlchemy


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Nationality: Estonian

Personal History:

Occupation: Seamstress

Location: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia


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Personal History:Occupation: Embroiderer and weaver



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MerimetsanAlchemy


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Personal History:

Occupation: Seamstress



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MerimetsanAlchemy


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Nationality: Russian/Estonian

Personal History:

Occupation: Embroiderer



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MerimetsanAlchemy


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Personal History:Occupation: Painter



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MerimetsanAlchemy alchemic research of fashion, photography and social therapy by Otto von Busch, Sirja-Liisa Vahtra, Diana Lui and the wonderful people at Merimetsa

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Busch - MerimetsanAlchemy