Mirjana Rukavina - Fashion Untitled, 2016-22

FASHION UNTITLED, 2016-22

Mirjana Rukavina questions the essence of fashion, or, in hermeneutic terms, the constant renewal-repetition of conforming at the edge of the real. The series of photographs investigates the folds and creases of the visual fabric that fashion brands utilize to create a contiguity between dream and consumption. It shows how the constructive and fictional attitude of fashion designers and the world of production that revolves around them is so pervasive that it penetrates into the subtlest recesses of the image. Through a very thorough and obsessive control of the shot, the choice of a material detail of an environment or object, or of a logo, follows the entire process of weaving the image, bringing to light the basic elements of its making. In a place where the “laundry of dreams” – as Bachmann defined all types of advertisements – is almost about to reveal its trick, but then immediately closes off again to return a sharp continuity of knowledge and bitter nostalgia.

Ilari Valbonesi, curator and art critic