MerimetsanAlchemyMerimetsanAlchemy MerimetsanAlchemy– alchemic research of fashion, photography and social therapy

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

MerimetsanAlchemy

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 reflection of both inner and outer change and the process took form in the shape of garments and photographs.

Part one of MerimetsanAlchemy, the RE_TALLiation project, 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 project’s garment collection went on sale in a local fashion store and was sold out immedi-ately. The purpose of both these projects, Merimet-sanAlchemy and RE_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 with fashion 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 of myth. Fashion and alchemy are both usually seen as unserious prac-tices with neither the social value of the fine 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 not veil 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 and Kairos. Modern sci-ence has emerged from the concept of Chronos, time as sequential 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 within Kairos, 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 flow – 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 linear extrapolation from the actuality of here and now. The possible is also not “the shad-ow of reality”, as Wittgenstein believes is philosophy’s 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 fluid form, ready to transform and crystallize into reality.

MerimetsanAlchemy

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 of MerimetsanAlchemy 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 produced during 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 and be 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 reflection, 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 refined 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 is the 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 field of action as opposed to photography’s 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 film. Summon-ing the model’s 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 reflect 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 reflect the alchemic process developed through the project. The visitors are encouraged to become partici-pants, to witness and reflect 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 let’s 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 original beautiful myth of fashion!

by Otto von Busch, Sirja-Liisa Vahtra, Diana Luiand the fantastic people at Merimetsa.

Literature:Antoine Faivre: “Esotericism”

in Hidden Truths: Magic, Alchemy, and the Occult, (edited by L. E. Sullivan)

Karen-Claire Voss: “Spiritual Alchemy” in Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times,

(edited by R. van den Broek and W.J. Hanegraaff)Ludwig Wittgenstein: Notes on Philosophy

MerimetsanAlchemy

Nationality: EstonianPersonal History:Occupation: SeamstressLocation: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia

MerimetsanAlchemy

Nationality: EstonianPersonal History:Occupation: Embroiderer and weaverLocation: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia

MerimetsanAlchemy

Nationality: EstonianPersonal History:Occupation: SeamstressLocation: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia

MerimetsanAlchemy

Nationality: Russian/EstonianPersonal History:Occupation: EmbroidererLocation: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia

MerimetsanAlchemy

Nationality: EstonianPersonal History:Occupation: PainterLocation: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia

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