It is an interdisciplinary event unprecedented in Latvia that testifies to the creative potential of the art of fashion, revealing its true universal nature, when things, materials and ideas can exist outside time. Visitors are invited to discover fashion not as a seasonal whim, but rather as a serious, multifaceted form of 21st century art and design that expands the boundaries of reality.
The exhibition presents a retrospective of MAREUNROL’S collections supplemented by video documentation, photographs, sculptural elements and an audio installation. The authors attach meaning to every detail, their aim is to create clothing that tells a story and lives its own life just like a conceptual work of art. MAREUNROL’S speak boldly to the viewer, reflect on the collective past and look for the visual codes of the future, sensitively perceiving the relationship between body, space, sound and movement.
Una Meistere, Director of art and culture portal Arterritory.com: “Fashion design duo MAREUNROL’S expand the boundaries of design and at the same time break through them. They are thinkers and storytellers who raise clothing (fashion) outside of the familiar framework of functionality, using it as a thread for studying the world and the self. Their collections are constructions of mind, imagination and sensations, which, like finely tuned antennae, detect the vibrations of their time, deconstructing them, extracting their essence and visualising them in the universal language of fashion. Thus constantly urging us to take a look at the world from a different perspective.
MAREUNROL’S designs pose questions, demand attention, experiment with the assumptions, perceptions and materiality of the language of fashion. Their collections are spaces for contemplation – in the guise of clothing. Also crossroads, where music, art, literature, cinema, life, dreams, the material and immaterial world meet. Their apparel and the environment it inhabits are characterised by watchmaker’s precision underlining the significance of every detail, as well as a surreal element of chance. They are like wings of imagination that transcend the gravity of rationality and let us reach the territory of unpredictability and spontaneity and see that which otherwise would remain unnoticed.”
The exhibition has been conceived as a special platform (with talks, discussions and creative workshops) engaging every visitor and promoting an understanding of fashion as an inalienable part of culture.
ABOUT MAREUNROL’S
Established in 2006, MAREUNROL’S is the internationally most-recognised Latvian fashion brand. They have taken part in numerous competitions and festivals, biennials and group exhibitions abroad, including the 12th Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, travelling exhibition ARRRGH! Monsters in Fashion at the Benaki Museum in Athens and La Gaîté Lyrique in Paris. In 2009, the duo earned the two main prizes at the 24th International Hyeres Fashion and Photography Festival in France. Since 2012, the brand regularly takes part in Paris Fashion Week – originally as part of its official programme. Meanwhile in 2016 MAREUNROL’S were among the ten European nominees for the prestigious International Woolmark Prize in the menswear category.
The authors have designed costumes for many theatre and opera productions in Latvia and abroad. In 2013, Phaidon Press’ survey Pattern included MAREUNROL’S among 100 of today’s most exceptional young designers. Their costume also graced the cover of the special edition of the respected lifestyle magazine Wallpaper, dedicated to the fashion of the future.
The works of MAREUNROL’S are included in the Design collection of the LNMA / Museum of Decorative Arts and Design as an outstanding example of contemporary Latvian fashion and can be seen in the permanent display.