Free time, 1954 in Pakrac
On Friday, November 21, 2014, starting at 7 pm in the Green Action space (Frankopanska 1,10000 Zagreb), Lea Vene, a researcher at Center for Research of Fashion and Clothing (CIMO), will give a lecture as part of the Fashion and Clothing program - new theories and new practices, entitled Family archive - photography, memory and clothing practices.
Isn’t history just a time when we weren’t born yet? I read my non-existence in the clothes my mother wore before I remember her. There is a kind of astonishment in the act of seeing a close person dressed completely differently (Hirsch 1997: 1). Barthes contemplates family photographs by becoming aware of multiple diachronic photographic views of the mother’s character. Marianne Hirsch concludes that the image of the mother exists only thanks to the words he uses to describe the photographs and his own reactions. As part of the family's everyday life, the photographic camera articulates family life through amateur photography, which captures fragments of family history and thus constructs and then represents family life. The family album becomes the basis for analyzing and understanding the family “text image”. Given that family photography exists at the crossroads of personal memory, social history, public myth, and our own unconscious, our memories are not entirely ours nor are photographs a credible representation of our history (Cf. Hirsch 1997: 14). Bearing in mind the gap between documentary and fictional in family photography, the lecture will analyze the relationship between visual material, clothing practices, family stories, personal memories and the narrations of the photographed.
The series of lectures Fashion and Clothing - New Theories and New Practices presents CIMO projects that, in addition to cultural contribution, bring a shift from the traditional understanding of fashion as a system of power in the name of cultural extension to the view of clothing practices as inclusive cultural and economic needs. CIMO center is particularly focused on the problem of sustainable design and nurtures and supports individual theoretical and creative efforts that stand against consumerism and the phenomenon of banal fashion.
Lectures Fashion and Clothing - New Theories and New Practices are held during November every Friday at 19.00 in the Green Action, Zagreb.
* The project is financially supported by the City Office for Education, Culture and Sports of the City of Zagreb, for 2012.
* Copyright © cimo - a center for research of fashion and clothing. All rights reserved.
* Photos: private archives t.v.
