Madeleine Brunnmeier
Gestalten
Artphilein Editions, Lugano — 2023
This project by Madeleine Brunnmeier was selected by Artphilein Editions to be awarded with the publication of this photobook as a special prize of the Upublished Photo 2023 contest promoted by Fondazione culture e musei in collaboration with MUSEC Museo delle Culture Lugano and 29 Arts in progress Gallery of Milan.
The work “Gestalten” displays photographs of temporary sculptures, composed of people and all their possessions of clothing.
As an everyday companion, our second skin is as present as it is invisible. It is a means of communication, an expres- sion of status, an archive, a shelter, and a habitat. So close to our bodies, clothing functions as a mirror of the interior and a boundary to the outside world.
By extending the body through its own clothes, the garments come to the fore, but as a matter of material, as a part of the body and its history, as a manifold deputy of the person. A mass of identity, culture, and memory, an archive of a period of time. In the picture, this creates a very strong presence of the characters, although in some cases they are barely recognizable.
On the one hand, the figures are very specifically personal, but they are also open to universal human interpretation - a collective study of the relationship of the body to clothing and clothing to the body.
These textile sculptures which evolve, kind of imitate their wearer and transform them into an exaggerated version of themselves.
