Projects / Stations

Concept
What is it like to feel equally at home in several places around the world? Or to get lost in between the stations? Where do we feel at home nowadays, in these times of globalism and multilocalism? Do we even need a specific geographical concept or place where we can belong and feel at home, or are we able, even while traveling, even when in the in-between “no man’s” spaces, even when moving from one place to another, to carry our sense of home with us or to quickly create it anywhere? To what extent can a garment help us in this process of “settling down”?

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Nowadays we belong less to a particular nation or nationality and more to a unifying culture, which often combines different influences.

The station, or stop, suggests remaining at a place, which then leads to another place. It is this temporary, yet constant point before and after the passage through the non-place, the transient and in-between space between the departure point and the final destination. It is a unit that is simultaneously static and dynamic. It implies both a preceding and a following station and, in spite of its apparent staticity, it also contains within itself the idea of movement and is eager to release it.

If life is a journey, then the character, the geographical location, the social and cultural specifics of each station and the way it is perceived emotionally come together, with every following step, to shape our identity. We construct that identity by going through the pieces of the puzzle we find at each station, taking some and discarding others. In this way, the image sometimes becomes completed and sometimes it falls apart, and when the old pieces no longer match the new ones, we often have to start rebuilding it from scratch.

The journey becomes the search for the pieces that make up our identity—it gives us the opportunity to put them together, substitute them, and arrange them. The journey is a movement where fixedness is replaced by variability, consistency gives way to flexibility and to the ability to adapt and change. Today’s multilocalized person belongs to a diverse cultural environment rather than to a specific place—he or she is characterized by a multifaceted identity, which unites different influences from various cultures. And precisely because of this, or perhaps in spite of it, this person still continues to pose questions about belonging and isolation, about resistance and adaptation, about coherence and division.

What, then, is home? Is it the departure point for the journey and simultaneously the final destination, to which one returns, regardless of the number of stations, or stops, along the way? Or has the home itself become so mobile that it can easily fit into one’s luggage and be recreated anywhere?

Home is the station where one feels like they belong, regardless of whether it is the place where they remain the longest or the place that they return to the most. Home is the sense of falling into place. It can be portable—a feeling or a person that you bring along on the journey or that you carry inside yourself; it can be built anywhere, either through material objects and personal belongings or through memories and feelings. The journey teaches you to recognize and appreciate the sense of home. It teaches you to know when and where you are at home—whenever and wherever you are yourself. Whenever and wherever you belong—to something, to somebody, or to the environment. Whether you’re settled or underway.

In addition to using material in several hues of nude, the designers were given the following questions as points of departure upon which to build their individual conceptual models:

  • What does it feel like to leave one place and to reach another?
  • What are the effects of a move that is “temporary” vs. those of a move that is “permanent?” When do you begin to feel “at home”?
  • How does traveling affect the constructing, blurring, redesigning, and newly constructing of one’s identity? What are the most important ingredients and the aspects that we derive from:
  • the place we call “home,” from which we set forth and where we have spent a big part of our life so far;
  • the transient “non-place” between the starting point of our journey and its final destination;
  • the final destination, or the place that unites the real or imaginary influences of the place where we arrive and settle down—temporarily or permanently—with the influences of our “home” and the “non-place”?

The conceptual designs created as part of the STATIONS project trace and interpret the global multilocalism trend and examine the identities that have been created as a result of our experiences in different parts of the world.

Conceptual fashion design:

Antonia Pashova, Alexander Gerginov, Georgi Florov, Diliana Ivanova, Milena Nacheva, Nataliya Zhivkova, Neli Mitewa, Sylvia Tsvetanova, Stanislava Dimitrova, Tsvetalina Atanasova

Exhibition locations:

2017 SAMCA Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art
2018 United Fashion Showroom, Fashion Weekend Skopje, Macedonia.

Projects / STATIONS

Designs

Projects / STATIONS

Film

Details

STATIONS – Fashion film

Idea and realization: Alexander Gerginov, Momchil Tasev, Neli Mitewa
Direction: Vassil Vitanov
Camera: Dimiter Tenev
Editing: Yordan Stoichkov
Featuring: Vanessa Lu
With the participation of: Anna Rangelova, Mila Petkova, Radina Marinova
Make up: Arina Miteva
Hair: Lora Ilieva
Styling: Alexander Gerginov
Accessories: PAPIETA by Mariana Ribarova
Music: Alexander Yanev
Scenography: Momchil Tasev
Photography: Georgi Peev
Concept of lighting and spatial layout: Momchil Tasev, Alexander Gerginov

“When it was presented to me, the concept for STATIONS seemed well developed and solid. So instead of thinking conceptually, I began thinking atmospherically.

The location (an antiques warehouse for old furniture and objects) and the lighting (different for each of the models) turned out to be ideal for the atmosphere that I wanted to emphasize.
Then came the idea of including the “documentary” frames—the garments presented in the process of dressing. What resulted was not a mixing, but more of an overlapping, of fiction and reality, a feeling of pulling back to the edge of the well with each appearance of such a frame.”

Vassil Vitanov, director

Screenings:
2018 United Fashion Showroom, Fashion Weekend Skopje, Macedonia
2021 Structura Gallery, Sofia