SERIES OF LECTURES

Uncomfortable Clothes #03

26. November 2020, 18.30 Uhr ONLINE via Zoom

Fashion and Dirt

Fashion & Technology lädt im Rahmen von "Uncomfortable Clothes" zum Talk von Jojo Gronostay. us02web.zoom.us Mary Douglas examined in her book Purity and Danger “Dirt can only be dirt when there is a system. Dirt is the byproduct of a systematic ordering and classification of matter, in so far as ordering involves rejecting inappropriate elements. This idea of dirt takes us straight into the field of symbolism and promises a link up-with more obviously symbolic systems of purity”. 30 000 second-hand sellers and 500 million used clothes are located at Kantamanto. Here the categorization between dirt and non dirt are rather complicated to classify. There is so much excess of clothing at Kantamanto, that when it rains the retailers and importers begin throwing clothing on to the walkways to soak up the mud, so in parts of the market walking feels shaky. It took me a while to realize that I was walking on earth-colored clothes. Jojo Gronostay (lives and works in Vienna) is a German artist with Ghanaian roots. In 2017 he founded the label Dead White Mens Clothes. In his conceptual work he is dealing with questions of identity, platforms, recycling and the in-between. Furthermore Gronostay‘s work engages systems that interrogate relationships between Europe and Africa. He explores concepts of value and economy, as well as spiritual, human and material exchange, as they perform in different social contexts. He mainly works sculptural and with photography.
He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Martin Guttmann and at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. Gronostay is represented by Gallery Hubert Winter in Vienna. "Uncomfortable Clothes" is a series of talks on the complex dimensions of fashion, technologies and clothing and their constitution, hosted by Fashion & Technology.